@clive If you are writing about ebikes I'm sure you know that #ebikes outsell non-ebikes in The Netherlands. In 2022, 486,000 of 855,000 new bikes sold were electric: hundreds of thousands of cargo delivery bikes, family bikes, and everyday get-around-the-city bikes.
If ebikes make sense to people using flat, safe #Netherlands roads, surely they make even more sense to use on the hilly, car-clogged streets in the rest of the world.
The lead prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has announced that he is seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin #Netanyahu and Yahya #Sinwar, along with senior figures of their respective regimes, for the commission of #WarCrimes and #CrimesAgainstHumanity.
Amidst the predictable performative outrage from the US political elite, one fact is barely reported upon: the US is amongst a handful of nations that does not recognise the #ICC, and has on its books a 2002 law (colloquially dubbed 'the Hague Invasion Act') threatening war upon the #Netherlands (!) should any US citizen (or the citizen of any US ally) be brought for trial before the ICC.
Given the fact that the #US routinely fails to follow its own laws, let alone #InternationalLaw, when it comes to war crimes and crimes against humanity, the chances of an actual US invasion of the European lowlands is scant. Nonetheless, the rogue nature of #USexceptionalism is the always the elephant in the room when it comes to all discussions of accountability for the most egregious crimes of #geopolitics.
Another lovely May evening ride, albeit with a brisk northerly wind 💨
Inland to Vogelenzang, including part of the Leidsevaart with its daisies, then back along the coast & past the beaches, then to Noordwijk & its new Ferris wheel, before the riding home through dunes to Wassenaar in the dusk 🎡
The view from my hotel room in Kampen, where I’m staying for a few days to play at a wonderful chamber music festival. In the picture the huge cathedral that towers over the town. #iphone#blackandwhitephotography#Netherlands#music#ontour
Enormous hugs 🤗 and strength 💪 to those of you in the #Netherlands dealing with this enclave of actual nazis and their alleged conservative/centrist collaborators. Who have revealed themselves also as nazis.
This unthinkable group of filth will not dim your own ideals or resistance.
Please RT for reach: I’m trying to #FOIA records on computer intrusions into DOD systems during first Gulf War (1990), I have a GAO report which gives a high level summary but am looking for more.
Does anyone know what DOD department might have investigated #hacking back then?
It is so depressing. OK, the speed limits is as much a statement of intent as a meaningful measure (ave you ever tried driving in the Netherlands), but depressing ostrich like behaviour all the same.
"Speaker of the House of Representatives, Martin Bosma (PVV [extreme right]), intervened in a plenary parliamentary debate on Thursday. Volt MP Laurens Dassen was not allowed by him to call the PVV "extreme-right"."
"The term refers to national socialism, Bosma said: "I see it as a Nazi comparison". "I don't think we should label groups or members of the States General as extreme-right"
Dassen: "If we are not allowed to name this in parliament [that PVV indeed is an extreme right party], it becomes very oppressive."
He thought the term was justified: "If you as a party have been casting suspicion on judges for years, calling journalists scum and saying of groups of Dutch people that they don't belong," that term is possible, Dassen said."
From Otjes, S. & de Jonge, L., "The Netherlands: Political Developments and Data in 2023: Two Landslide Populist Victories", European Journal of Political Research (2024).
The newly agreed #Dutch coalition government on Thursday plans the "strictest-ever" #asylum policy, including an opt-out from European Union rules. After six months in the making, the 26-page coalition agreement proposes to “deport people without a valid residence permit as much as possible, even forcibly”. Monte Francis reports. #Netherlands#EU#immigration#FarRight
Under outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Netherlands has been a staunch ally of Ukraine, being one of the few partners to pledge F-16 fighter jets.
Netherlands' incoming coalition government reaffirms support for Ukraine (kyivindependent.com)
Under outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the Netherlands has been a staunch ally of Ukraine, being one of the few partners to pledge F-16 fighter jets.