Dutch opposition calls for snap elections after government collapses
"The Netherlands deserves a government that unites the people and works shoulder to shoulder on real solutions," said Frans Timmermans, leader of the largest opposition group in parliament. "It's time for elections, we are ready for them."
Timmermans said the collapsed government, led by populist firebrand Geert Wilders' PVV, has led the country to a standstill, while war is being waged in Europe and people are worried about their future.
He described the failed four-party ruling alliance as powerless, disunited and ridden by conflict.
"That's what happens when you give power to extremes," Timmermans concluded.
The leader of the Socialist Party, Jimmy Dijk, also called for new elections - "preferably as soon as possible."
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NBC News
9 hours ago
- NBC News
Going Dutch: LGBTQ Americans find Trump-free life in Netherlands
AMSTERDAM — It had been months since Alex and Lucy, a trans couple from Arizona, felt safe enough to hold hands in public. They rediscovered that pleasure after moving to Amsterdam this year. The couple, who did not want to give their last names because of the sensitivity of the subject, decided to leave the United States soon after Donald Trump was re-elected last year. They arrived in the Netherlands on Jan. 19, the day before Trump was inaugurated and swiftly issued an executive order saying the government would only recognize two sexes — male and female. 'We're both visibly trans and faced growing discrimination. It ramped up right after the election,' said Lucy, sitting alongside Alex in their De Pijp apartment in Amsterdam's south. 'It felt like people had taken off their masks — waiting for an excuse to finally say what they wanted. We went from being tolerated to openly despised,' she added. Alex, who is disabled, feared staying put might also mean losing access to their federal health insurance. 'In the end, it became a matter of life and death,' Alex said. In his first six months in office, Trump has enacted multiple policies affecting the lives of LGBTQ Americans in areas from healthcare to legal recognition and education. In the face of this rollback of rights, some LGBTQ people have voted with their feet. While there is little official data, LGBTQ people and activists told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that many people head to Portugal and Spain, while Costa Rica and Mexico are also popular destinations, alongside France and Thailand. The Netherlands stands out, though, for its strong legal protections, its record on LGBTQ+ inclusivity, and due to a Dutch–American Friendship Treaty (DAFT) and its affiliated visa. DAFT — established as a 1956 act of Cold War cooperation — enables U.S. citizens to live and work in the Netherlands if they start a small business investing at least 4,500 euro ($5,200), can secure Dutch housing, and are able to prove they have enough money to live on. The permit is valid for two years and can be renewed. 'Europe was always on the cards, but the Netherlands had a really high percentage of queer folks, and we knew people here (who) were trans and happy,' said Lucy, who got a DAFT visa. 'Numbers increasing' While the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) does not keep statistics on the sexual orientation or gender identity of DAFT applicants, overall applications have increased since 2016, with January 2025 registering the highest number of any single month on record — 80. 'The numbers are increasing. We don't know why,' said Gerard Spierenburg, IND spokesperson. Immigration lawyers also report an increase. 'From the day after the election, my inbox began filling up with requests of U.S. citizens wanting to move to the Netherlands,' said lawyer Jonathan Bierback, adding that about a fifth came from the LGBTQ+ community. Three other lawyers in Amsterdam confirmed the trend in interviews with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Jack Mercury, a trans adult performer from California, moved to Amsterdam almost a year and a half ago — 'literally the moment I knew Trump was going to be re-elected'. He said the DAFT visa was 'one of the few financially accessible visas' for him. He now lives in west Amsterdam with a partner and two cats. 'The words to describe the U.S. in the last 100 days are uncertainty and fear. For trans people, it's fear that they'll lose access to healthcare, rights like housing or the ability to work. And for gay people and lesbians, it's that they will become the next targets,' Mercury said. This year, more than 950 anti-trans bills were introduced in U.S. state legislatures, according to the Trans Legislation Tracker, of which 120 have passed, 647 failed, and 186 are still under consideration. 'I feel very lucky. I know many people who cannot afford to move, because they're not high earners, they are sick, have family or children,' said Mercury. His friend Topher Gross, a trans hair stylist from New York who has been in Amsterdam for four years, offered housing tips and recommended a lawyer. 'Everyone's exploring any possible way to get out,' said Gross. 'But not everyone can — many trans people of colour can't afford to leave. It's terrifying.' He noted that the climate of fear was exacerbated by deportations under Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration. 'Basic rights are being stripped away.' Jess Drucker, an LGBTQ relocation expert with U.S.-based Rainbow Relocation, said many U.S. clients choose to go Dutch. 'People see how quickly rights can erode, with the global rise of right-wing extremism, and want to move somewhere where those rights are more likely to hold,' Drucker said. 'We've seen a major increase in requests for consultations. We are absolutely full.' Because not everyone can afford a DAFT visa, the Dutch NGO LGBT Asylum Support is urging the government to consider asylum options for LGBTQ Americans. Spokesperson Sandro Kortekaas said about 50 trans Americans had contacted the group since Trump's inauguration. In June, the group asked the government to reassess the status of the United States as a safe country for queer asylum seekers. However, Bierback does not expect success as such a shift would be seen 'as a provocation towards the U.S.' Spierenburg from the IND said there had been more asylum applications from the United States this year than last, although the numbers were still low — 33 against 9 in 2024. Lucy and Alex are grateful for their new life. 'When I came here, I felt more at home than I ever did. I have so much hope,' said Lucy. But she does worry that a future Dutch administration — a right-wing coalition collapsed in June — could kill off DAFT. 'I'm really concerned that the treaty is going to be damaged by current political agendas. And so I'm doing everything I can to make sure that I stay within the rules. I don't want to be extradited for any reason.'
UPI
11 hours ago
- UPI
Slovenia becomes first EU nation to ban weapons to Israel
1 of 3 | On Friday, the government of Slovenia's Prime Minister Dr. Robert Golob (pictured Sept. 2024 at the UN in New York CIty) signed-off on its decision to prohibit the "export and transit of military weapons and equipment from or through the Republic of Slovenia to Israel, as well as the import of such goods from Israel into the Republic of Slovenia." Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo Aug. 1 (UPI) -- Slovenia on Friday imposed a ban on all weapons trading with Israel becoming the first European country to do so over the growing humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave in Israel's ongoing war. Its government said in a statement that at the initiative of Prime Minister Robert Golob, Slovenia signed off on its decision that prohibits "the export and transit of military weapons and equipment from or through the Republic of Slovenia to Israel, as well as the import of such goods from Israel into the Republic of Slovenia." It added that Israel's actions had constituted "serious violations of international humanitarian law" and that Slovenia would prepare "some more national measures" in the "coming weeks," according to the statement. The prime minister's decision, according to the Slovenian government, stems from a promise to "act independent" if the EU "failed to adopt concrete measures" by July. "Due to internal disagreements and lack of unity, the European Union is currently unable to fulfil this task," the statement said in part. On Monday, a European Commission proposal to partly suspend EU weaponry aid to Israel was blocked as Sweden became the most recent to apply pressure over trade. Nearly 70% of Israel's arsenal is imported from the United States with Germany its second-biggest supplier and Italy at third. Slovenian officials have repeatedly called for a cease-fire and its government increased aid delivery to the war-torn territory. On Friday, it said people in Gaza are dying "because humanitarian aid is systematically denied to them. They are dying under the rubble, without access to drinking water, food and basic healthcare." Slovenia's government called it a "complete denial of humanitarian access" and a "conscious prevention of basic conditions for survival." Last year in June, Slovenia became one of the first in Europe to recognize Palestine as a state. Israel has exported more than $560 million in weaponry since October 2023 when Iran's terror syndicate attacked and took Israeli hostages. Italy, Spain, Belgium and the Netherlands have since either restricted or halted exports. This week, the Dutch government banned Israel's national security minister and finance chief from its borders. The foreign ministers of Britain and 28 other nations including Canada, France, Italy and Australia recently issued a joint statement saying Israel's ongoing war with Hamas in Gaza had "reached new depths" and "must end now." Qatar in March called on international leaders to bring Israel's nuclear facilities under the watch of the International Atomic Energy Agency. Chile's president has sharply criticized Israel's military actions in Gaza as the South American nation seeks to replace Israel as Chile's primary arms supplier. Golob visited the United States last year prior in October prior to November's presidential election. "It is the duty of every responsible state to act," the Slovenian leader's statement continued. "Even if this means taking a step ahead of others."
Black America Web
14 hours ago
- Black America Web
Trump's South African Refugee Program Is 'Whites Only'
Source: Aninka Bongers-Sutherland / Getty I told y'all. Back in May, I warned that Donald Trump's executive order launching a so-called 'refugee' program specifically designed to fast-track white South Africans into the United States wasn't about humanitarian relief. It was about rescuing whiteness. It was about giving apartheid a second passport and smuggling settler colonialism through the back door of U.S. immigration law. And just like that, the warning became policy. The first arrivals are not climate refugees. Not war refugees. Not famine refugees. They are white farmers. They are the descendants of Dutch and British colonizers who helped construct and uphold one of the most violently racist apartheid systems in modern history. And now they're being recast as persecuted innocents, worthy of American sanctuary. On July 25, Reuters confirmed what critics already suspected. A senior U.S. embassy official in South Africa asked if mixed-race 'coloured' South Africans or Black Khoisan people who speak Afrikaans could qualify for the program. The response from Spencer Chretien, a top official in the State Department's refugee bureau, was blunt: 'The program is intended for white people.' Although the exact phrasing wasn't verified, three sources confirmed the substance of the message. The State Department later tried to backpedal, claiming the program was open to all who met the criteria. But the numbers speak louder: By late July, 88 white South Africans had been resettled. Not a single Black or mixed-race applicant has made it through. That comment, spoken out loud by a U.S. government official, wasn't a shocking slip. It was a confirmation. In an era where racism no longer bothers to wear a disguise, the quiet part wasn't whispered; it is policy. No more winks. No more dog whistles about 'heritage,' 'culture,' or 'farmers under siege,' or lies about 'white genocide.' Just raw, unvarnished racial preference embedded into federal immigration strategy. The Reuters report simply confirms what has been clear all along: this isn't immigration policy. It's racial recruitment. These people aren't being rescued from danger. They're being rescued for whiteness. And not just any whiteness. Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty Whiteness trained in domination. Whiteness with generational expertise in occupying land, extracting labor, and turning Black suffering into white capital. Whiteness fluent in settler colonialism but repackaged as 'agrarian' and 'hard-working.' Whiteness that knows how to police Black movement. This is a whites-only asylum pipeline. A state-sanctioned apartheid rescue mission. And while officials try to dress it in the language of humanitarian concern, refugee programs from across sub-Saharan Africa remain partially or fully frozen. A travel ban on dozens more, including key student-sending nations, is under review, awaiting possible restriction imminently. This is not a contradiction. It is the blueprint. The logical endpoint of a xenophobic, white-first immigration model. Nobody in power is confused about who's actually at risk in South Africa. Crime is real, but it's not white farmers who are the most vulnerable. It's poor Black people. Women. Children. It's the descendants of those who were disenfranchised and traumatized by apartheid. Poverty, unemployment, overcrowding, and inadequate policing have concentrated risk in townships and informal settlements, areas that are predominantly inhabited by Black South Africans. But there are no emergency task forces or pilot refugee programs for them. Instead, America imports the lie of 'white genocide,' a myth cooked up by white nationalists, echoed by conservative media, and now embedded in U.S. foreign policy. Even white Afrikaner farmers acknowledged that crime affects all farmers, not just whites. They emphasized that isolation, not race, is the real risk on rural farms. Government and academic reports echo that stance, refuting systemic racial persecution. Because for all the talk about vetting and security and quotas, the real rule of American immigration remains: If you're white, we'll find a way to let you in. This country turns away Haitian refugees. Sends Latino migrants to an alligator swamp in Florida. It lets Palestinian families starve under siege. It deports African migrants by the plane-load. But for white South Africans, suddenly there's room. Suddenly, there's urgency. Suddenly, merit is redefined to look like a Boer in nice clothes. This is white ethnostate expansion by other means. Source: Chip Somodevilla / Getty It echoes Cold War immigration policy, which favored white Cubans, Hungarians, and Russians fleeing communism, while excluding African, Caribbean, and Asian refugees escaping Western imperialism. The message then, as now: We rescue whiteness. We reject the rest. What's also behind this refugee program is the right-wing panic over 'replacement theory.' But these racists are not afraid of being replaced. They're afraid of being treated the way they've treated Black people, Indigenous people, immigrants, and the colonized world for centuries. So, they're fast-tracking reinforcements. Importing whiteness. Strengthening the walls with people already trained in racial dominance. And America, as always, gets to pretend this is generosity, when really, it's laundering apartheid into patriotism. And let's not forget about Trump's refusal to visit Africa. In two presidencies, he hasn't stepped foot on the continent. No summits. No symbolic visits. No photo ops with African schoolchildren. But chartered planes for white South Africans are the kind of diplomacy that makes the cut. During his first term, Trump called African nations 'shithole countries.' He imposed sweeping travel bans on Nigeria, Sudan, Eritrea, Tanzania, and Somalia. Those bans blocked thousands of students and researchers, many mid-degree at U.S. universities, from reentering the country. Thousands of African and Muslim-heritage students studying in the U.S. had their lives upended when Trump's travel ban stripped their visas or froze processing. Many are now too afraid to leave the country, too terrified they won't be allowed back in. Families are fractured. Degrees are at risk. And yet, while Black students face closed borders, white South African colonizers are being fast-tracked with federal approval. American institutions are bleeding talent because Black excellence is expendable, but white grievance is priority. So no, this refugee program isn't surprising. It's not an exception. It's consistent. It's a racial sanctuary program for white discomfort. A strategic asylum pipeline for settlers fleeing equity. It is whiteness demanding sanctuary from a world where it might be held accountable. It is empire offering amnesty to its foot soldiers. It is apartheid, rebranded for a softer landing, complete with a visa and federal benefits. This is about building the next frontier of white supremacy. About stacking the deck with settlers who already know how to dominate, exclude, and erase. Because in America, you don't need to flee a war to qualify as a refugee. You just need to flee the end of white rule. Dr. Stacey Patton is an award-winning journalist and author of 'Spare The Kids: Why Whupping Children Won't Save Black America' and the forthcoming 'Strung Up: The Lynching of Black Children In Jim Crow America.' Read her Substack here. SEE ALSO: South African Refugee Program Is White's Only, Report Says Trump Prioritizes White Afrikaners Over Black And Brown Migrants 'It's for White People': Trump's South African Refugee Program Confirms What We Already Knew was originally published on
