Job growth has collapsed in the last two months, with the official US. unemployment rate rising to 9.2%. Since 2008 we have entered a period of high structural unemployment with the economy stagnating and unable to effectively pull out of the recession. Yet the politicians in Washington are not talking about jobs. Instead, they are playing a dangerous game of chicken with the August 2 deadline to raise the federal debt ceiling

Right wing extremist Anders Behring Brevik’s massacre of young people at the camping island of Utøya, outside Norway’s capital, Oslo, shocked and horrified people everywhere. It was an act of hardly imaginable wanton cruelty.

After a month of social explosions across Spain with the 15-M movement, Spanish Politics has been turned upside down, and the situation continues to simmer. There will be further developments over the next months. There are numerous demonstrations and actions planned. However, for many, thoughts are already turning to the battle after the summer. Key questions are being asked. Will there be a general strike? What will become of 15-M?, And what political expression will the movement need to force a victory against capitalism and austerity?

Deploying tear gas and threats, the Greek Pasok government passed new austerity policies during a protest 48 hour general strike and the movement of the ‘Enraged’.

It has emerged that the Irish Ship to Gaza, part of the Freedom Flotilla 2, has been sabotaged whilst sitting in harbour preparing to sale. The damage, which was potentially life threatening, is so serious that the ship will not be able to sale, but fortunately some of those on board can move to the Italian ship that is part of the flotilla. Here on of those on the flotilla, Paul Murphy MEP (Socialist Party) responds to this latest development.

The Greek trade unions have started their first 48 hour general strike since 1992. The movement of the ‘enraged’ and the activists of the workers’ movement demanded this step, against the vote in the Greek parliament on the second memorandum - a new package of austerity imposed by the troika (EU, IMF and European Central Bank). This vote is planned to take place in various stages over the next days.

Paul Murphy, Socialist Party MEP for Dublin will shortly attempt to sail to Gaza as part of the ‘Freedom Flotilla II’ to try to deliver humanitarian aid to people in the Gaza strip. Last year’s ‘Freedom Flotilla I’ was brutally attacked in international waters by the Israeli Defence Forces, with 9 human rights activists killed. Here is an interview with Paul about the Flotilla and the situation in the Middle East.

For latest updates and photos from the Irish Ship to Gaza from Paul, as well as blog posts and analysis, check out the special feature on Paul's website available at www.paulmurphymep.eu/gaza

The Greek establishment was shocked by the general strike on 15 June combined with the continuation of the occupation of Syntagma Square in Athens and other major squares in other cities and the generalised demand of the Greek people to get rid of the government of “liars and thieves”, as they are widely called.

Last Sunday witnessed the biggest mass demonstrations since the economic crisis began in Spain, as the streets of every major town were flooded in support of the ‘15-M’ movement. A human tsunami of the young and the old emerged as if from nowhere, thrilling the protestors and activists who had spent weeks building for 19 June (19-J).

The impact of the revolutionary conflagration which is sweeping North Africa and the Middle East in Europe has been immense. But the youth revolt currently taking place across Spain, with demos and "campouts" across Europe and beyond, is one of the most direct and powerful reflection of this impact yet to be seen.