Free Republic

AMSTERDAM (REUTERS) - Five siblings and a man believed to be their father were receiving medical treatment after Dutch police acting on a tip discovered them locked away in a secret room at an isolated farm, officials in the Netherlands said on Tuesday (Oct 15). The five, estimated at 18 to 25 years of age, and a man they identified as their ailing father were found near Ruinerwold, a village in the northern province of Drenthe. “We found six people living in a small space in the house which could be locked, not a cellar. It is unclear if they...

Authorities in the Netherlands have launched a major investigation after an apparent family of 7 was discovered living in the basement of an isolated farm, allegedly "waiting for the end of time." Police in Drenthe said on Twitter that someone reported they were worried about the living conditions of people who were living in "an enclosed space" on a farm located just outside the town of Ruinerwold. When police went to the home on the farm on Monday, they discovered six adults aged 18-25 inside and a 58-year-old man who "did not want to cooperate with the investigation" and was subsequently arrested. It's unclear what relationship exactly the 58-year-old held with...

The UK will not join other European countries such as France, Germany, the Netherlands and Finland in halting selling arms to Turkey after its invasion in Syria, the Independent reports. The UK was initially also against an EU condemnation of Turkey's military attack, but later agreed to the EU's unanimous position. Because of the UK's refusal to a European arms ban, the EU agreed on stopping arms sales unilaterally.

During WW II, the train systems of occupied countries were critical in carrying out the Nazi’s “Final Solution" regarding the Jews. The Dutch railroad system, Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), deported 107,000 Jews during the Nazi occupation, of whom 5,100 survived. A new Dutch book on the railroad in wartime states that 112 Dutch trains deported Jews from the main transit camp Westerbork, originally a prewar refugee camp, in the northeast Netherlands, to Nazi camps between June 1942 and August 1944. As in France, the railroad was paid a small amount by the Nazis for the transport to the German border where...

Prime Minister Mark Rutte understands why American president Donald Trump is critical of NATO and EU countries' Defense spending, he said in a speech about cooperation between the United States and the Netherlands. He also called Trump's criticism of the United Nations "at its core, justified", RTL Nieuws reports. NATO countries agreed to spend two percent of their gross domestic product on Defense by 2024. The Netherlands, and some other European Union member states, has not yet reached that target. Trump and his administration regularly criticize European NATO countries for not increasing their Defense budgets. "Anyone who is a member...

Netherlands Liberal MP Tjeerd de Groot calls for livestock production to be reduced by half Last year, I published this blog post, which is called, “Here’s how most Venezuelans lost an average of 43 pounds in two years.”Here’s a photograph from 2014 of people in Venezuela waiting in line for food: (posted here under fair use from http://www.businessinsider.com/long-food-lines-are-in-venezuela-2014-2 )It looks like the Netherlands might be trying to achieve a similar effect.The BBC just reported:Liberal MP Tjeerd de Groot called for livestock production to be halved, meaning six million fewer pigs and 50 million fewer chickensMeanwhile, I’d like to once again remind...

DuckDuckGo SearchDutch farmers clog highways in protest at politicians labeling them a climate change problem

Farmers — tired of being blamed for climate change — drive tractor convoy to The Hague, causing record-breaking rush hour in the NetherlandsOctober 01, 2019A plow on the front of one tractor was spray-painted with the words, 'How dairy you'Farmers in the Netherlands are ticked off over claims that they should be held responsible for nitrogen oxide emissions, so much so that police said 2,200 joined a convoy of tractors storming The Hague in protest on Tuesday. Reuters reported that the agriculture activists caused "the worst morning commute in Dutch history."In the midst of the country's efforts to curb carbon...

A Dutch lawyer in a major gangland case has been shot dead outside his Amsterdam home - a crime described by police as exceptionally brutal. Derk Wiersum, 44, was the lawyer for a state witness in a case against members of a violent drug gang, who are accused of five murders between 2015 and 2017. A hoodie-wearing suspect fled on foot. Police chief Erik Akerboom said "with this brutal murder, a new limit has been crossed: now even people simply doing their work no longer seem safe". Jan Struijs of the NPB police union said "organised crime has got totally...

According to Channel 13, 97.6% of the votes from Tuesday's elections have already been counted, Blue and White stands at 33 seats and Likud at 31 seats, with Blue and White leading by a narrow margin. It is important to note that these are still not the final results. Overnight, the committee was counting the near quarter of a million soldiers' votes cast by Israeli soldiers. The Central Election Committee (CEC) has been updating its website since the close of the polls at 10 p.m. on Tuesday. The last update was at 10:40 a.m. on Thursday: 4,354,991 votes had been...

GROESBEEK, NETHERLANDS 09.18.2019 - Dutch re-enactors, dressed as Soldiers of 82nd Airborne Division during World War II, parachute out of a Douglas C-47 Skytrain to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Operation Market Garden and begin the ceremony to present the Military Order of William to WWII veterans in Groesbeek, the Netherlands, Sept. 18th, 2019. This event is just one of the many events commemorating the largest airborne operation in history, Operation Market Garden, which was aimed at liberating the Netherlands and gaining a foothold into Nazi Germany by crossing the Maas, Waal, and ultimately the Rhine River. To this day,...

Right-wing factions convened at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem Wednesday afternoon, deciding to establish a "right-wing bloc" headed by Prime Minister Netanyahu, that will work for the establishment of the next government. It was decided to form a joint coalition negotiations team for all factions in the bloc. In addition to Netanyahu, the meeting saw the participation of Minister Yariv Levin and faction heads: Yaakov Litzman, Moshe Gafni, Naftali Bennett, Ayelet Shaked, and Bezalel Smotrich. Minister Aryeh Deri met with Prime Minister Netanyahu earlier this morning, as he was unable to attend the meeting due to the memorial ceremony...

The District Court of the Hague will hold a hearing on Tuesday about whether a war crimes case against Benny Gantz is admissible relating to his command decisions during the 2014 Gaza War. Israeli soldiers and commanders may also be on the hot seat at The Hague before the International Criminal Court, but Tuesday’s hearing, which also happens to be Election Day, is a local Dutch court proceeding that is unrelated to that. In fact, the ICC preliminary probe of Israel’s conduct of the 2014 war is moving slowly and is not expected to come to any conclusion earlier than...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to announce later Tuesday his intention to promote annexation steps in the occupied West Bank if he wins the next week's elections, an Israeli official tells me. Why it matters: Netanyahu has already spoken about annexation before Israel's elections in April, but he didn’t commit or promise anything. Netanyahu’s statement is directed at his right-wing base and the settler lobby in order to boost support for his Likud party over other right-wing parties, ensuring that Likud wins most seats in the elections to gain an upper hand in building a coalition. The international...

Results that began trickling in early Wednesday morning showed Netanyahu has a solid lead over Gantz, with the Likud gaining 40 Knesset seats according to the latest vote tally. It is still unclear that neither leader would be able to easily assemble a majority sufficient for a ruling coalition among the right and left-wing blocs, although the numbers do favor the right.

Benny Gantz's Blue and White party triumphed over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Tuesday's elections, as exit polls released late in the evening showed the party winning 37of the Knesset's 120 seats. The victory could hand the premiership to Gantz, though his path to a coalition comprising at least 61 seats remains unclear. Netanyahu's Likud Party came in second with 33 seats.

New polls taken Wednesday in the wake of former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz’s first speech in politics and his bond with former defense minister Moshe Ya’alon found that he poses a threat to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The polls indicated that the address and the deal with Ya’alon elevated Gantz into a serious alternative to Netanyahu and his Likud Party. When asked who is most fit to be prime minister, a survey taken by pollster Camil Fuchs for Channel 13 found that an equal number of Israelis, 42%, consider Netanyahu and Gantz fit to be prime minister. A...

"The new right-wing party is on the right, period, for the land of Israel, without compromises, against a Palestinian state" Education Minister Naftali Bennett Announces A New "Right" Party In Israel 12/29/2018 Education Minister Naftali Bennett and Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked announced Saturday night the formation of "The New Right" party to contest the April 9th elections. They are leaving the "Jewish Home" party where Bennett served as its leader. Bennett and Shaked will be co-leaders of the new party. The party will 'represent secular and religious Israelis'. Bennett said religious Israelis have been used for too long by politicians...