War

Thousands of people across France took to the streets for the traditional May Day demonstrations on Sunday, but there was increased tension compared to previous years. Protesters clashed with riot police during at a May Day protest in Paris, held to demonstrate against labour reforms proposed by the French government and to commemorate International Worker’s Day. The French parliament is debating a bill that would allow longer working hours and let companies lay workers off more easily.

A massive car bomb near police headquarters in Gaziantep, Turkey, has claimed the lives of at least two officers and injured more than 23 people. ISIS has been blamed for the care bombing and the planned International Labor Day demonstrations in the city were cancelled.  Russia Today reports: Footage from the scene showed pieces of a wrecked vehicle near the gates of the station. Glass from windows in buildings in the vicinity were also shattered, while all roads in the area have been closed for security purposes.

ISIS in Iraq has ventured into the Shiite dominated southern part of the country killing at least 32 civilians and wounding more than 75 others. The terrorist organisation claimed responsibility for two suicide car bombs in the Shiite dominated southern Iraqi city of Samawah on Sunday.  Indian Express reports: The first blast was near a local government building and the second one about 60 metres (65 yards) away at a bus station, police sources said. The death toll was expected to keep rising.

Following yesterday's dramatic escalation in Iraq's suddenly very unstable political situation, when Beghdad was put under a state of emergency after supporters of popular Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr breached the heavily fortified Green Zone and stormed both the parliament and government offices - an event which we dubbed the collapse of the US-created political system in Iraq - the situation has continued to deteriorate. 

One week after Austria was shocked by the news that its right-wing, anti-immigrant Freedom Party, had swept the competition, gathering over 35% of the vote and leaving the other five candidates far behind, Europe's anti-immigrant juggernaut just added to its momentum when neighboring Germany's populist AfD party adopted an anti-Islam policy on Sunday in a manifesto that also demands curbs to immigration according to AFP. The biggest surprise however, is that the three year-old party is now also Germany's third strongest party.