Free Republic

(NEXSTAR) — Roughly 300 additional Big Lots stores are set to be closed as speculation that the company could file for bankruptcy looms. In early July, Big Lots warned in a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) filing that between 35 and 40 locations could shutter this year. In a new SEC filing, submitted on July 31, Big Lots said the total number of closures could reach 315, much higher than the originally agreed number of 150. Company leaders have pointed to inflation and difficulties in competing, saying they had “a substantial doubt” in their ability to continue. Between the...

A statue of Anne Frank, famous for her diary account of hiding from the Nazis during World War II, has been covered with pro-Palestinian Arab graffiti, AFP reported on Sunday. According to images published on X, the base of the statue was spray-painted with the slogan "Free Gaza", while the girl's hands were painted with the same blood-red color. Police have opened an investigation into the defacement, which likely occurred in the night from Saturday to Sunday, an Amsterdam police spokesman told AFP, adding that no suspect had yet been identified. This marks the second time in a month that...

A physically healthy 29-year-old Dutch woman ended her life through assisted suicide due to crippling depression and other issues. According to multiple outlets, officials in the Netherlands gave Zoraya ter Beek, 29, final approval to die by assisted suicide on the grounds of unbearable mental suffering. Ter Beek first applied for euthanasia in 2020. Ter Beek reportedly died last week. As Townhall previously reported, Ter Beek previously aspired to be a psychiatrist, but “was never able to muster the will to finish school or start a career,” she explained in an interview with The Free Press. She suffered from depression,...

EDE, Netherlands (AP) — Heavily armed police cordoned off part of a Dutch town on Saturday, saying that multiple people were being held hostage in a building there.

It all started with Elvis. In 2003, mathematician Tim Pennings of Hope College in Holland, Mich., revealed to the world that his Welsh corgi, Elvis, appears to be solving a calculus problem when finding the optimal path to fetch a ball. In this case, optimal path means minimizing travel time. When Elvis and Pennings go to the beach, they always play fetch. Standing at the water's edge, Pennings throws a tennis ball out into the waves, and Elvis eagerly retrieves it. When Pennings throws the ball at an angle to the shoreline, Elvis has several options. He can run along...

SNIP ASML declined to comment on Wednesday. However, Wennink spoke at an event in The Hague and said he was concerned the business climate in the Netherlands was worsening. "Some of these elements that made us a great company, those elements are under pressure," he said, citing increasing regulation and a plan to scrap a tax break given to highly skilled immigrants. POTENTIAL CURBS ON FOREIGN STUDENTS Around 40% of ASML's 23,000 employees in the Netherlands are not Dutch. Europe's largest tech company sources parts from around the globe but currently assembles its machines in Veldhoven, Netherlands before shipping them...

At least four police officers were hurt during a violent riot that erupted on the streets outside The Hague last night, after two rival groups of Eritreans clashed following a a political disagreement. Rioters torches police cars and a bus, and Dutch police officers were forced to use tear gas to try and dispel them. Dozens of rioters were filmed surrounding the Opera conference hall along Fruitweg in the Netherlands, as multiple police vans drove to the scene. Another clip also showed the aftermath. The building had several smashed windows and parked vehicles were on fire, with the street left...

This has to be incredibly frustrating for so-called "far right" Dutch politician Geert Wilders, whose party won a surprise quarter of the vote in the recent Dutch elections, earning him the right to form the next government. It also has to be infuriating for Dutch voters who chose right-wing and centrist parties to represent them as they vanquished their unpopular and seemingly entrenched government.Far-right Dutch leader Geert Wilders' bid to form a government appears to be stumbling just days before a key deadline, as potential coalition partners squabble over fiscal and immigration policy.Wilders stunned the Netherlands and Europe by storming...

Like the lifeboats on the Titanic, in Eurabia there won't be body armor for everyone when the attack comes. Op-ed. Israel National NewsOpedsBulletproof vests won't save the West from its own Hamas Bulletproof vests won't save the West from its own Hamas Like the lifeboats on the Titanic, in Eurabia there won't be body armor for everyone when the attack comes. In no other country in the world does the winner of political elections have to appear in public wearing a bulletproof vest. “Holland: immigration, Islamization and mass pro-Palestinian demonstrations have opened the doors to Geert Wilders' electoral victory” writes...

I don’t speak Arabic, so I can’t decipher what they’re saying, but the video below depicts a recent eruption of protest in the Netherlands after the election victory of Geert Wilders:Islamic extremists march in Netherlands. Geert Wilders will have a lot to work on.pic.twitter.com/KiLCd3slBU — RadioGenoa (@RadioGenoa) November 27, 2023What stands out to you? Well, the total absence of any Dutch flags, and the very conspicuous presence of Al Qaeda, Taliban, and ISIS flags—we don’t see them reaffirming their desire to be included as Dutch citizens that they claimed upon admission to the country, but their true nature is on...

In another sign that people have had it with leftism, Geert Wilders’ has finally won the prime ministership. The Netherlands was, for decades, a bastion of Europe’s soft socialism. However, the disconnect leftist politicians had from the needs of their countrymen and the effects of a huge influx of Muslims have changed the country. Now, there’s a new sheriff in town. When my mother was a little girl in Holland in the 1920s and 1930s, it was a conservative country with self-controlled but still famously tolerant people who were required, if they lived in Amsterdam, to scrub the stairs and...

The vast majority of people living in the Netherlands support expanding assisted suicide for older citizens who are not facing a serious or life-threatening illness.The English-language Dutch news outlet NL Times reported last week that a recent poll conducted by Kieskompas of nearly 200,000 people found that 80% of the Dutch supported enabling elderly people who feel they've reached the end of their lives to obtain assisted suicide. In other words, a supermajority of respondents favor allowing assisted suicide regardless of whether the person requesting it is terminally ill. While a supermajority said they support expanding assisted suicide, 10% of...

US women’s team refuse to sing national anthem before World Cup draw with Holland. Six players take part in silent protest labelled ‘disrespectful’ but Martina Navratilova tells critics to 'get a grip'. The US women’s football team have sparked a divisive row at the World Cup after six players elected not to sing the national anthem in a silent ‘protest’ that was labelled “embarrassing” and “disrespectful”. The defending world champions risked the ire of the American public for the second time in five days yesterday when more than half of the team stayed silent before their group game against Holland,...

Rikkie Valerie Kolle, 22, will be the second trans woman to go for Miss Universe A transgender woman has been crowned Miss Netherlands for the first time in the beauty pageant's history and is now set to compete for the Miss Universe title. Rikkie Valerie Kolle, 22, made history after she won the competition on Sunday. The new Miss Netherlands wore a red gown as she was overcome by emotion while receiving her crown from her predecessor Ona Moody and reigning Miss Universe R'Bonney Gabriel from the USA. The model stood victorious with a bouquet of flowers while her competitors...

What a time to be alive! The Miss Netherlands pageant has taken a rather unexpected turn, ladies and gentlemen. This year, the crown goes to… a trans woman — Rikkie Valeria Kolle. You heard that right, a person who was assigned male at birth but now identifies and presents as a woman. This quite literally adds a whole new dimension to the beauty pageant scene. Who needs historical gender norms when we can just rewrite them, right? A man just won “Miss Netherlands” 2023. Considering the fact that we live in a post-Truth world, I wasn’t even expecting anything else....

By now you have heard of the Dutch farmers’ controversy.The government of The Netherlands is buying out thousands of farms to meet idiotic climate change goals–under the theory that growing food is an unacceptable pollutant–and forcing the most productive farmers in the world to quit feeding people.Understandably the farmers are upset and have been flexing their political muscle, but it all came to naught when talks between the government and the farmers collapsed. Plans to forcibly close the farms are moving forward. 3000 farms will go “poof” and somehow the climate will be saved.🇳🇱 Now that the totalitarian Dutch government...

John Kerry claimed that US farm confiscations are not off the table, as he stated that small farms contribute a significant amount of greenhouse gasses. If you recall, farmers in Holland are undergoing the most radical regulations that are actually causing culling of herds, and destruction of crops. Following the plans of the World Economic Forum and the United Nations have produced a disaster of major proportions. We do not want that evil plan here

WowThe European Union is officially insane. The buyout scheme prohibits Dutch farmers from moving to other countries and starting up farms abroad, meaning that their knowledge and expertise would be lost.— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 4, 2023With something this draconian, this beyond all comprehension, I guess “Wow” is about all you can say, huh?Holy smokes. But it’s for real. The European Commission on Tuesday said it had approved two Dutch plans worth a combined 1.47 billion euros ($1.61 billion) to buy out livestock farmers to reduce nitrogen pollution, saying they are permissible under state aid rules.The Dutch need to reduce...

The push to normalize state-facilitated suicide (branded euphemistically as “euthanasia”) across the Western world just won a huge victory in the Netherlands.Via The Guardian:The Netherlands is to widen its euthanasia regulations to include the possibility of doctors assisting in the death of terminally ill children aged between one and 12.The new rules would apply to between five and 10 children a year who suffer unbearably from their disease, have no hope of improvement and for whom palliative care cannot bring relief, the government said on Friday.“The end of life for this group is the only reasonable alternative to the child’s...

During the year or so between my first visit to the Netherlands, in August 1997, and my move to Amsterdam from New York, I not only put myself through a one-man crash course in Dutch; I also read every book I could find about Dutch history, society, art and culture, customs and character. But one key fact that I somehow missed entirely, and that only recently found its way onto my radar, is that the Netherlands is, after the U.S., the world’s largest exporter of agricultural products. At first blush it seems impossible. Yes, the U.S. being #1 is a...