Parliamentary vote

Moments ago, in a move that will infuriate Turkey, the German parliament withstood a barrage of pressure from the Turkish government, and approved a symbolic resolution that declares the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turkish forces a ‘genocide’, a step widely viewed as a tacit escalation against Turkey.  The vote was almost unanimous in supporting the resolution with just one MP voting against and another abstaining. The move was largely expected and was supported by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

Thousands took to the streets throughout France on Tuesday evening after the government bypassed a parliamentary vote on a controversial labor reform and approved it with an edict. The French cabinet gave Prime Minister Manuel Valls the green light to use a rarely-invoked article of the constitution to bypass parliament and forcibly implement controversial labour reforms. Protests against the reforms, and the use of Article 49.3, flooded social media, showing mass demonstrations in several cities across France RT reports: Cashes erupted with police who used pepper spray against protesters.

As Norway offers cash for refugees to leave, announcing that they won't be accepting any more refugees from the EU, and Switzerland prepares its military to close down borders, the EU has seemingly had enough of every country acting as if it has any type of sovereignty left. The European Commission has announced that it is going to pull rank on everyone, and in Obama-like fashion, will be fining countries for not taking their fair share of refugees.

Here is a detailed summary of all that happened today in the ongoing European refugee crisis courtesy of Mish Shedlock.

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Following Obama's stunning foray into UK politics with his anti-Brexit oped (which surprised both the pro and anti-Brexit camp as there was little to be gained from Obama's gracious entrance of an elephant in a UK political China store) on Thursday evening, one person who had a rather visceral reaction was London Mayor Boris Johnson who slammed Obama's "hypocritical" Brexit diatribe and accused Obama "ancestral dislike of the British empire – of which Churchill had been such a fervent defender" on being part-Kenyan.

British prime minister David Cameron has come under renewed pressure to reveal details of possible UK military action in Libya after it emerged that a number of British special forces troops had already been operating in the country since January. EU ministers are holding a special meeting on Monday evening to discuss sending police and border forces to the North African country. The British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond also paid an apparent unannounced visit to Tripoli in a show of support for the country’s new UN-backed government.