Netherlands sets general election date after government collapse

June 6 (UPI) -- The Netherlands Friday scheduled a snap election for Oct. 29 following the collapse of the government caused by the far-right Party for Freedom leaving the governing coalition.
Outgoing Minister of Foreign Affairs Judith Uitermark announced the election date in a post on X.
'In the coming period, I will work with the municipalities and other stakeholders to prepare so that this important day in our democracy goes smoothly!' Uitermark said.
Prime Minister Dick Schoof's four-party governing coalition collapsed when Party for Freedom's leader Geert Wilders demanded radical slashing of migration.
Schoof indicated in a message to lawmakers he will maintain control over critical policies in the months between now and the October election.
'As far as I'm concerned, it's about security, both nationally and internationally, including support for Ukraine and everything that's needed for defense,' Schoof said in the statement.
The far-right Party for Freedom quit the Dutch government Tuesday, prompting Schoof to submit his resignation to King Willem-Alexander's cabinet.
Schoof called the move to quit the government 'irresponsible and unnecessary.'
The current cabinet will stay in place pending the general election to act as a caretaker government.
'Schoof showed that he is not the right man in the right place. If you, as prime minister of a cabinet in which the PVV is the largest party, refuse to sign a letter about a stricter asylum policy and a tougher approach to criminal aliens, then you are unsuitable,' Wilders said in a post on X.
The PVV pulled off a shock victory in the November 2023 election gaining more seats than ever before for the far right.
Wilders, an anti-Islamist right-wing politician, tried to parlay the 37 seats his party won into becoming prime minister, but he was forced to abandon that attempt.
There are 150 seats in the Dutch parliament.
The center-left Labor party and Green Left won the second highest number of seats.
Schoof became Prime Minister instead of Wilders, forming a government consisting of the PVV, the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy, the New Social Contract and the Farmer-Citizen Movement.
That governing coalition was seated in July 2024.
Copyright 2025 UPI News Corporation. All Rights Reserved.

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Miami Herald

2 hours ago

• Miami Herald

Europe's growing fear: How Trump might use US tech dominance against it

LONDON -- When President Donald Trump issued an executive order in February against the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court for investigating Israel for war crimes, Microsoft was suddenly thrust into the middle of a geopolitical fight. For years, Microsoft had supplied the court -- which is based in The Hague in the Netherlands and investigates and prosecutes human rights breaches, genocides and other crimes of international concern -- with digital services such as email. Trump's order abruptly threw that relationship into disarray by barring U.S. companies from providing services to the prosecutor, Karim Khan. Soon after, Microsoft, which is based in Redmond, Washington, helped turn off Khan's ICC email account, freezing him out of communications with colleagues just a few months after the court had issued an arrest warrant for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for his country's actions in the Gaza Strip. Microsoft's swift compliance with Trump's order, reported earlier by The Associated Press, shocked policymakers across Europe. It was a wake-up call for a problem far bigger than just one email account, stoking fears that the Trump administration would leverage America's tech dominance to penalize opponents, even in allied countries like the Netherlands. 'The ICC showed this can happen,' said Bart Groothuis, a former head of cybersecurity for the Dutch Ministry of Defense who is now a member of the European Parliament. 'It's not just fantasy.' Groothuis once supported U.S. tech firms but has done a '180-degree flip-flop,' he said. 'We have to take steps as Europe to do more for our sovereignty.' Some at the ICC are now using Proton, a Swiss company that provides encrypted email services, three people with knowledge of the communications said. Microsoft said the decision to suspend Khan's email had been made in consultation with the ICC. The company said it had since enacted policy changes that had been in the works before the episode to protect customers in similar geopolitical situations in the future. When the Trump administration sanctioned four additional ICC judges this month, their email accounts were not suspended, the company said. Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, said concerns raised by the ICC episode were a 'symptom' of a larger erosion of trust between the United States and Europe. 'The ICC issue added fuel to a fire that was already burning,' he said. Khan has been on leave from the ICC since last month, pending a sexual misconduct investigation. He has denied the allegations. An ICC spokesperson said it was taking steps to 'mitigate risks which may affect the court's personnel' and 'taking extensive measures to ensure the continuity of all relevant operations and services in the face of sanctions.' The episode has set off alarms across Europe about how dependent European governments, businesses and citizens are on U.S. tech companies like Microsoft for essential digital infrastructure -- and how hard it will be to disentangle themselves. Concerns about how else Trump might leverage technology for political advantage has jump-started efforts across the region to develop alternatives. Casper Klynge, a former Danish and European Union diplomat who worked for Microsoft, said the episode was in many ways the 'smoking gun that many Europeans had been looking for.' 'If the U.S. administration goes after certain organizations, countries or individuals, the fear is American companies are obligated to comply,' said Klynge, who now works for a cybersecurity company. 'It's had a profound impact.' The tech debate adds to an increasingly fractious U.S.-European relationship over trade, tariffs and the war in Ukraine. Trump and Vice President JD Vance have criticized how Europe regulates U.S. tech companies, and U.S. officials have made digital oversight and taxation part of ongoing trade negotiations. European regulators have argued that they need to be able to police the biggest digital platforms in their own countries without worrying that they will face political pressure and punishment from a foreign government. 'If we don't build adequate capacity within Europe, then we won't be able to make political choices anymore,' said Alexandra Geese, a member of the European Parliament. Since Edward Snowden's leak of scores of documents in 2013 detailing widespread U.S. surveillance of digital communications, Europeans have sought to diminish their reliance on U.S. tech. Lawmakers and regulators have targeted Apple, Meta, Google and others for anticompetitive business practices, privacy-invading services, and the spread of disinformation and other divisive content. Yet without viable alternatives, institutions across the region have turned to U.S. digital services. Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other U.S. firms control more than 70% of the cloud computing market in Europe, which is the essential way for storing files, retrieving data and running other programs, according to Synergy Research Group. The ICC has been a longtime customer of Microsoft, which provides the court with services including the Office software suite and software for evidence analysis and file storage, according to an ICC lawyer who declined to be identified discussing internal procedures. Microsoft has also provided cybersecurity software to help the court withstand digital attacks from adversaries like Russia, which is being investigated for war crimes in Ukraine. In February, after Trump issued penalties against Khan, Microsoft met with ICC officials to decide how to respond. They concluded that Microsoft's broader work for the court could continue but that Khan's email should be suspended. He switched his correspondence to another email account, said a person who has communicated with him. Sara Elizabeth Dill, a lawyer who specializes in sanctions compliance, said the Trump administration was increasingly using sanctions and executive orders to target international institutions, universities and other organizations, forcing companies to make hard choices about how to comply. 'This is a quagmire and places these corporations in a very difficult position,' she said. How tech companies with global services respond is especially important, she added, 'as the broad repercussions are what people and organizations are primarily worried about.' Microsoft and other U.S. companies have sought to reassure European customers. On Monday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella visited the Netherlands and announced new 'sovereign solutions' for European institutions, including legal and data security protections for 'a time of geopolitical volatility.' Amazon and Google have also announced policies aimed at European customers. Still, many institutions are exploring alternatives. In the Netherlands, the 'subject of digital autonomy and sovereignty has the full attention of the central government,' Eddie van Marum, the state secretary of digitalization in the Ministry of Interior Affairs, said in a statement. The country is working with European providers on new solutions, he said. In Denmark, the digital ministry is testing alternatives to Microsoft Office. In Germany, the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein is also taking steps to cut its use of Microsoft. In the European Union, officials have announced plans to spend billions of euros on new artificial intelligence data centers and cloud computing infrastructure that rely less on U.S. companies. Groothuis, the Dutch member of the European Parliament, said lawmakers in Brussels were discussing policy changes that would encourage governments to favor buying tech services from EU-based companies. 'The situation is not tenable, and we see a big push from European governments to become more independent and more resilient,' said Andy Yen, CEO of Proton. European tech companies see an opportunity to win customers from their U.S. rivals. Cloud service providers like Intermax Group, based in the Netherlands, and Exoscale, based in Switzerland, said they had seen a jump in new business. 'A few years ago, everyone was saying, 'They're our trusted partners,'' Ludo Baauw, Intermax's CEO, said of U.S. tech companies. 'There's been a radical change.' This article originally appeared in The New York Times. Copyright 2025

Newsweek

2 hours ago

• Newsweek

India Seeks Peace Says MP Shashi Tharoor, But Would Respond to Pakistan

Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. India does not want war with Pakistan, but its neighbor is a legitimate target if it does not close "terrorist camps" and should avoid "nuclear blackmail", said Shashi Tharoor, chairman of the Indian Parliament's Committee on External Affairs. The nations clashed over four days in May as India struck targets it alleged were terrorist infrastructure after the killing of the 26 civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir. Pakistan denied any role in the Islamist attack on tourists and retaliated for the Indian strikes before the nuclear-armed neighbors agreed a ceasefire. "We're not interested in war. We're focused on our own growth and development, on the well-being and prosperity of our people," Tharoor told Newsweek in Washington, D.C. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament in India and Chairman of Committee on External Affairs, speaks with Newsweek's Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Cunningham at the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC on June 6, 2025. Dr. Shashi Tharoor, Member of Parliament in India and Chairman of Committee on External Affairs, speaks with Newsweek's Editor-in-Chief Jennifer Cunningham at the Indian Embassy in Washington, DC on June 6, 2025. Maansi Srivastava for Newsweek A member of parliament from the opposition Indian National Congress, Tharoor showed a unified front with the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi on "Operation Sindoor." In Washington, his delegation met with Vice President JD Vance. Tharoor said the Indian operation had been designed to send a message to Pakistan and to avoid civilian casualties while striking infrastructure of groups designated as terrorists by the U.S. and United Nations. Some elements of Pakistan's military are "deeply complicit" in terrorism targeting India and its denials are not believable, he said. "We want to send them a signal. Don't just think you can walk across the border and kill our people and get away with it because we're so nice. Sorry. We'll stop being nice." "Probably the terror buildings and infrastructure we've demolished will be built again in six to nine months, and then what happens? That's the real question. Will Pakistan understand that as long as these things are on their territory, their territory becomes a legitimate target for reprisals anytime a terrorist attack happens?" The office of Pakistan's prime minister did not respond to a Newsweek request for comment. Pakistan has said over 50 people were killed in the Indian strikes, 40 of them civilians. India said around 30 of its people were killed, mostly by Pakistani shelling. More than 20 were civilians. Tharoor accused Pakistan of escalating the brief conflict after the initial Indian strikes. Despite Pakistani claims to have shot down Indian aircraft, satellite damage showed that Pakistani air bases had suffered worst, he said. "When they said they were ready to stop, we stopped immediately. We didn't need persuading," he said. With both countries having nuclear arsenals, Tharoor said there was concern over statements from Pakistan, which had said it could use nuclear weapons if it felt its existence was threatened. India did not plan to change its own policy of no "first use" of nuclear weapons, he said. "We are a little concerned about this nuclear bogey being brandished every time by the Pakistanis. To begin with, they are the only ones who are waving the threat of nuclear action, not us," he said. "The very existence of terrorism is being threatened, not of Pakistan. So I don't see why they need to even raise that threat. It's kind of a silly sort of nuclear blackmail to which India would not succumb." Pakistan should rather take steps to dismantle the "infrastructure of terror," he said. "If they actually arrested and jailed the people involved in camps, then we can talk, because that'll be a very sincere sign that they want to live in peace, and they wanted this mental terror," Tharoor said. "Otherwise, what they're saying is just words." Pakistan has accused India of supporting insurgents in its Balochistan province, though Tharoor denied this. Although U.S. President Donald Trump took credit for the India-Pakistan ceasefire, India did not seek mediation from the U.S., said Tharoor, 69, a former United Nations Under-Secretary General and author. "The reason we will not ask the U.S. or anybody else to mediate between us is that that implies a sort of moral equivalence which is not possible. There can be no equivalence between terrorists and their victims. There can be no equivalence between a country that provides safe haven to terrorism and a country that is a flourishing multiparty democracy," he said. Tharoor voiced optimism for a trade deal with the U.S. and in the relationship more broadly. Both are members of a "Quad" of democracies, along with Japan and Australia, that form a counterweight to China. China is a close ally of Pakistan and Chinese weapons were at the center of the Pakistani response to the Indian strikes. "We have no illusions about China's role, because China has developed a considerable stake in Pakistan over the years," he said. "We are fighting Chinese weaponry, Chinese defense systems, I believe, Chinese radar, Chinese GPS, Chinese everything else. Also, we've seen that China gives Pakistan pretty strong and unconditional support from the United Nations Security Council.... So now I think India will have to be reviewing its posture vis-à-vis China. But, as I say, we are not a nation that's seeking confrontation with anybody." China's embassy in India declined to comment in response to questions from Newsweek. India also has border disputes with China, and Prime Minister Modi told Newsweek in 2024 that he hoped they would be resolved quickly. There has been no sign of progress. "There doesn't seem to be an immediate inclination on the part of China to move towards a settlement. India, on the other hand, has come a long way from its earlier position," Tharoor said. "Until China decides to come around on this, I don't really see how we're going to be able to do so.... The world is large enough that India can grow and prosper. We don't have to tread on each other's toes." Nonaligned India is a member of the BRICS group with China and Russia, but in so doing it is part of a voice for the Global South and not an indication of it being aligned with the autocracies, Tharoor said. "We're proud of being a democracy, and we will always want that across the partisan divide," he said. As a major power with an independent foreign policy, India traditionally played a global bridging role between power blocs. That was now a challenge, Tharoor said. "I find it one of the two superpowers we're talking about is sitting on our borders and nibbling away at our frontiers. We ourselves inevitably have concerns about one of the superpowers that we don't have about the other one."

Boston Globe

7 hours ago

• Boston Globe

Israeli Consulate in Downtown Boston targeted with antisemitic flyers

'The Consulate General of Israel to New England is aware of and closely monitoring a disturbing incident in which inflammatory flyers — containing the names and personal details of Consulate employees — were distributed in the City of Boston,' the statement said. 'The Consulate strongly condemns this shameful and dangerous act.' Advertisement Officials from the Consulate, which is based in Downtown Boston, immediately notified city and state law enforcement, according to the statement issued Wednesday. A spokesperson for Massachusetts State Police said the agency's Hate Crimes Awareness and Response Team, as well as the Commonwealth Fusion Center, which collects and analyzes information related to terrorism, 'are aware of the matter and continue to monitor for threats to the Consulate.' 'Boston, Newton, and Brookline Police as well as the Boston Regional Intelligence Center have primary jurisdiction in this matter,' the state police spokesperson said in an email Friday night. Boston police could not be reached for comment. The Anti-Defamation League New England condemned the 'deeply troubling' incident in a social media post. 'The distribution of photos and personal details of Israeli Consulate staff on flyers encouraging individuals to 'tell them to leave Boston' is nothing short of dangerous and must be called out,' the post on X said. Advertisement Consul General Benjamin Sharoni was among those targeted by the flyers. 'When someone comes to your doorstep, puts up posters with your photo and personal information, and seeks to mobilize others to create a hostile environment around you— it is bullying, it is an intimidation, and a call to hostile action,' Sharoni said in the consulate's statement. Consulate officials said 'this deplorable act is especially concerning in light of recent horrific incidents where anti-Israel incitement has escalated into antisemitism, hate crimes, and acts of violence and terror, including right here in our region,' according to the statement. In Brookline, In Washington, D.C. last month, two Israeli embassy staffers The New England consulate's statement thanked local law enforcement for 'their swift response and continued cooperation, as well as their commitment to deepening security efforts around this matter.' 'We are certain that every effort will be made to ensure the safety and security of our team, our work, and other diplomatic missions operating in the City,' consulate's statement said. The statement also sought to make a firm stand. 'Any attempt to intimidate or disrupt our work will be met with firm resolve and our unwavering commitment to continue serving and further strengthening the bilateral relationship between Israel and this region,' the consulate's statement said. Advertisement The ADL echoed sentiments expressed by consulate officials about the timing of the distribution of the flyers. 'It is deeply troubling in the current climate, where anti-Israel incitement has directly led to the brutal murder of two Israeli embassy staff members in DC,' the ADL's post said. The distribution of photos and personal details of Israeli Consulate staff on flyers encouraging individuals to 'tell them to leave Boston' is nothing short of dangerous and must be called out. It is deeply troubling in the current climate, where anti-Israel incitement has… — ADL New England (@ADL_NewEngland) After Sunday's incident at The Butcherie near Coolidge Corner, Governor Maura Healey addressed the attack on social media, saying it was concerning and unacceptable. 'Acts of violence and intimidation have no place in our communities,' Healey's statement said. 'We stand with our Jewish neighbors against antisemitism. Everyone deserves to live, pray and do business without fear in Massachusetts.' Brookline Police Chief Jennifer Paster denounced the 'hateful' attack. 'This was not simply an act of property damage, and it is not simply vandalism,' Paster said in a statement Sunday. 'There is no doubt that this crime was a targeted, hateful message meant to intimidate a Jewish-owned business and our broader Jewish community.' Paster said a preliminary investigation found that two masked individuals walked to The Butcherie from Coolidge Street and returned in that same direction after throwing the brick through a window displaying a map of Israel. In April, the ADL reported that antisemitic incidents continued to occur at record numbers in New England last year. That followed a The ADL, which began tracking antisemitic activity in 1979, said 2024 marked the fifth year in a row that such incidents increased and broke the previous record for the region. Advertisement The group said New England has seen a 213-percent increase in antisemitic incidents since 2022. The Algemeiner Journal, a New York-based newspaper, Tonya Alanez can be reached at