He should just retire. Probably the worst Labour leader of my lifetime, he managed to somehow endorse Brexit and lose against Theresa May.

Even with my own language, Dutch, spoken by millions of people, I feel as if we’re gradually losing ground and nuance in favour of bad English among the younger generations.

Immigrant refuses to learn the language of the country he moved to and goes on to feel unwelcome. What a shame. As an immigrant living in Germany myself I’d recommend he go somewhere else.

Thanks for sharing this insightful information! This seems to confirm the trend we all seemed to intuitively believe in.

But people going to random shops might have gotten more used to shopping online. I believe looking at similar examples if only just to prove a thesis we already believe in can be worthwhile.

Deeds are worth more than words. We should wait for the new government to take action and judge it accordingly. If Babiš’ last term is anything to go by his main priority will be himself.

While I continue to believe that largely car free city centres will be more economically resilient, using data from before COVID is pointless. The way people shop and spend has changed a lot since 2018. It would be more interesting to see more recent data on this question to be able to shape future policies accordingly.

It’s just US Americans showing their true colours. It’s what they always wanted to be and do but felt unable to. It was similar in Germany back in the day.

I’m of the opinion that we can do both, counter the threat that this modern breed of fascism poses to freedom and democracy while at the same time building a firm basis of factual information that this threat is indeed real and taking place right now. Both aren’t mutually exclusive. While the general population of Russia or the United States is not susceptible to factual information at this point, there are still significant chunks of the European population that are.

Sometimes research and studies lead to completely expected results and seem like someone playing captain obvious. Nonetheless it’s important to have a solid basis to support one’s own argument, that democracy, freedom and European self determination are being attacked, than to simply assert it.

I wouldn’t call it talking big, more like talking cautiously in my opinion.

At this rate Germany might win this contest for once! /s

Speak for yourself, person who doesn’t require glasses.

I honestly feel like we should have been sending missiles and drones towards Moscow and Leningrad for years already. If they start whining just shrug and say that we have no say in the matter and Ukraine may choose targets in any way it sees fit.

The article raises some interesting points but also muddles a few things in my opinion.

While I no longer live in the Netherlands, I remain invested in the politics of my home country and have friends and family there. During my childhood squatting was a major issue and only subsided when the housing market became slightly more relaxed. Additionally we had very strict regulations on a large part of the housing stockpile back in the 1980s and 1990s, often with very long waiting lists.

Today the housing market is once again completely overheated. In addition to the mortgage tax relief, which the article rightly shines a light on, there are several other factors at play. There’s a serious lack of new construction, often due to nitrogen pollution levels but also due to the high price for any new construction. With the housing market grinding to a halt many older people just stay put in larger apartments or houses even after the children have left the house. Additionally, as mentioned in the article, the population of the Netherlands has been growing very quickly (one million since 2014?!). All of these people need to be housed. Especially the issue of housing asylum seekers (“statushouders”) is a big issue in the Netherlands as there is a situation where Dutch taxpayers are in a competition with foreigners whose rents are paid for by the Dutch taxpayers. This is obviously a touchy subject and a treasure trove for the right wing nut jobs.

All in all the situation is dire and there unfortunately seems to be no realistic way forward to better it.

Thanks for the insights!

Can someone who actually has the misfortune of living or having lived in Russia recently explain how widespread the use of this messenger is? I was under the impression that Telegram, despite also being a deeply problematic service, was the most popular chat tool there, even if the regime has been trying to discourage it recently. Can anyone give a first hand account?

My parents, who are now in their seventies, got life long multiple entry visas for the US back in the 1980. They were traveling through the Pacific and had a few beers with some people they met and mentioned that they needed to stop over in American Samoa. As it turns out one of these guys was the American ambassador to this minor Pacific nation, who granted them life long multiple entry visas. They haven’t been to the United States ever since but I guess these visas are now likely to be up for review…

Industry lobby group opposes consumer protection movement. In other news: water is wet.

This is an important milestone. However, in several countries including large ones like Germany, it is possible to sign the petition without an eID. There definitely needs to be a security buffer.

However, the relatively simple method of signing in Germany and countries that similarly don’t require you to jump through many hoops makes it easier, in my view, to encourage other, older people to sign. Feel free to openly discuss the topic with your family. In my family chat, a simple share with a short explanation of why the issue is important to me resulted in two more signatures.