Dutch government recommends citizens get 72-hour emergency kits
Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel said on Wednesday that citizens need to prepare to manage "without the central government" in case of a "real conflict."
ADVERTISEMENT
The Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel issued a recommendation on Wednesday for all citizens to compile 72-hour emergency kits in case of a natural disaster, cyber attack or war.
It is an update to existing advice to have a kit at home which lasts at least 48 hours. Items that citizens are recommended to have include cash, canned food, water and batteries.
This advice has existed for years, and a recent study by research firm Ipsos I&O shows that a quarter of the Dutch population owns an emergency kit. This is a significant increase from 2024, when just 15% of Dutch people had one.
The numbers show that recent advice from the Dutch government, as well as the Red Cross, is taking effect.
Just 17% of people surveyed in the study found that it wasn't necessary to own an emergency kit. They cited safety, electricity cuts and floods as main reasons to get one.
But Van Weel is urging for increased awareness about its necessity, making a comparison to the mindset during the Cold War. "Back then we knew what to do the moment the air alarm would go off," he told local newspaper De Telegraaf, adding that civil defence was "dismantled" after the fall of the Berlin wall and with it "the entire civilian resilience."
His comments come as EU leaders meet in Brussels to discuss spending more on defence in light of increasing uncertainty about Europe's security surrounding developments in Ukraine. Van Weel said "the commitment to civilian resilience must now increase at the same rate across Europe."
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has proposed a plan to loosen budget rules so countries that are willing can spend more on defence. Her proposal is underpinned by €150 billion worth of loans to buy priority military equipment.
Most of the increased defence spending would have to come from national budgets at a time when many countries are already overburdened with debt.
The Dutch minister also referenced Europe's vulnerability if it cannot count on the US for full support. The Trump administration this week announced a pause on all aid for Ukraine as well as intelligence sharing.
"We are realising that the world is drastically changing," van Weel said on Dutch radio. He added that if there is a "real conflict," the national government could be primarily focused on the "deployment of armed forces and the defence of our country." In that case, the population would need to be able to "manage for a while without the national government, doing all it can."
The Dutch government will publish detailed information on what it recommends people to keep at home in their emergency kits.
At the same time, van Weel said preparations are being made to strengthen five sectors: food and water, electricity, healthcare, infrastructure as well as the government itself.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
France 24
2 days ago
- France 24
Trump extends deadline for TikTok sale by 90 days
"I've just signed the Executive Order extending the Deadline for the TikTok closing for 90 days (September 17, 2025)," Trump posted on his Truth Social platform, putting off the ban for the third time. A federal law requiring TikTok's sale or ban on national security grounds was due to take effect the day before Trump's January inauguration. The Republican, whose 2024 election campaign relied heavily on social media, has previously said he is fond of the video-sharing app. "I have a little warm spot in my heart for TikTok," Trump said in an NBC News interview in early May. "If it needs an extension, I would be willing to give it an extension." TikTok on Thursday welcomed Trump's decision. "We are grateful for President Trump's leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users," said a statement issued by the platform. Digital Cold War? Trump said in May that a group of purchasers was ready to pay TikTok owner ByteDance "a lot of money" for the video-clip-sharing sensation's US operations. Trump has repeatedly downplayed risks that TikTok is in danger, saying he remains confident of finding a buyer for the app's US business. The White House had announced Monday that Trump would throw the wildly popular video-sharing app, which has almost two billion global users, another lifeline. During this new grace period the administration will work "to ensure this deal is closed so that the American people can continue to use TikTok with the assurance that their data is safe and secure," the administration said in a statement. The president is "just not motivated to do anything about TikTok," said independent analyst Rob Enderle. "Unless they get on his bad side, TikTok is probably going to be in pretty good shape." Trump had long supported a ban or divestment, but reversed his position and vowed to defend the platform after coming to believe it helped him win young voters' support in the November election. Motivated by national security fears and a belief in Washington that TikTok is controlled by the Chinese government, the ban took effect on January 19, one day before Trump's inauguration, with ByteDance having made no attempt to find a suitor. TikTok "has become a symbol of the US-China tech rivalry; a flashpoint in the new Cold War for digital control," said Shweta Singh, an assistant professor of information systems at Warwick Business School in Britain. The president announced an initial 75-day delay of the ban upon taking office. A second extension pushed the deadline to June 19. Now the deadline is September 17. Tariff turmoil Trump said in April that China would have agreed to a deal on the sale of TikTok if it were not for a dispute over his tariffs on Beijing. ByteDance has confirmed talks with the US government, saying key matters needed to be resolved and that any deal would be "subject to approval under Chinese law." Possible solutions reportedly include seeing existing US investors in ByteDance roll over their stakes into a new independent global TikTok company. Additional US investors, including Oracle and private equity firm Blackstone, would be brought on to reduce ByteDance's share in the new TikTok. Much of TikTok's US activity is already housed on Oracle servers, and the company's chairman, Larry Ellison, is a longtime Trump ally. Uncertainty remains, particularly over what would happen to TikTok's valuable algorithm. "TikTok without its algorithm is like Harry Potter without his wand -- it's simply not as powerful," said Forrester Principal Analyst Kelsey Chickering. Despite the turmoil, TikTok has been continuing with business as usual. The platform on Monday introduced a new "Symphony" suite of generative artificial intelligence tools for advertisers to turn words or photos into video snippets for the platform.
Euronews
2 days ago
- Euronews
Nuclear weapons: Which country's arsenal is growing fastest?
The era of nuclear disarmament appears to have come to an end, experts at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) warned this week. Amid widespread global tensions and regional conflicts, researchers say the number of nuclear weapons appears to have gone up in the past 12 months. The nuclear weapon stockpile is now estimated at 9,614 available warheads - 0.3% more compared to 2024. The total is 12,241, including retired warheads. "By the end of 2024 nuclear disarmament appeared more elusive than at any point since the end of the Cold War", says SIPRI, "especially since strategic dialogue between Russia and the United States has effectively ceased". China's nuclear program is growing faster than any other country thanks to "significant modernisation and expansion work", the report says. Beijing is currently building new silos for its intercontinental ballistic missiles (IBM) in three large fields in the north of the country as well as in three mountainous areas in the central east. Since 2023, its arsenal has expanded by 100 new nukes per year, reaching 600 in 2025, making it the world's third-largest stockpile. However, the vast majority of China's warheads are thought to be stored separately from their launchers. By the end of the decade, the country, which is currently the world's second-largest military spender after the US, could have at least as many ICBMs as either Russia or Washington, although its stockpile is still expected to remain smaller than theirs. Tensions undermined dialogue between China and the US on nuclear-weapon-related issues due to the American support for Taiwan as well as economic sanctions against China. Russia and the US still hold almost 90% of all nuclear weapons. "Both states are implementing extensive modernisation programmes that could increase the size and diversity of their arsenals in the future." says SIPRI. "If no new agreement is reached to cap their stockpiles, the number of warheads they deploy on strategic missiles seems likely to increase after the bilateral 2010 Treaty on Measures for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms (New START) expires in February 2026. In any case, SIPRI analysts say Russia's nuclear modernisation effort has endured a test failure and a further delay for the New Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile. Additionally, upgrades of other systems are progressing more slowly than anticipated. In the US, on the other hand, authorities are under pressure by nuclear advocates to keep up with China's new developments. The US could ramp up its capabilities by reactivating empty launchers, increasing its non-strategic nuclear weapons and deploying more warheads to existing launchers. In Europe, France has the largest nuclear arsenal, with 290 weapons - almost all of them are combat-ready. In 2024, Paris continued its development program of third-generation submarine-launched nuclear missiles as well as a new air-launched cruise missile. Like France, the UK has committed to scaling up its maritime nuclear abilities by building four new nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. Although the country is believed not to have increased its arsenal last year, which currently stands at 225 nukes, a few weeks ago the government announcednew investments in up to 12 new nuclear-powered submarines as part of the AUKUS programme. Authorities said that's "in response to the rapidly increasing threats". The investment is part of a £15 billion (€17.5bn) budget in the country's warhead programme. Larysa Hnatchenko has been at the helm of Slobidskyi Kray, the Kharkiv region's oldest newspaper, for more than 14 years. However, following the Trump administration's decision to slash 90% of USAID grants in January, she has been doing something she did not expect she would have to do, just to keep working. Hnatchenko has been dipping into her personal savings to ensure the publication's survival — using her money to pay salaries, office rent and fuel expenses. "On top of this all, we were already owed two months' money when they paused the funding," she told Euronews. While most of Slobidskyi Kray's team left Kharkiv in February 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion, they returned after the city's liberation, committed to continuing reporting. The team began organising the distribution of 3,000 newspapers each week — for free — to humanitarian hubs located in 20 communities across the Kharkiv region. "The goal of distributing the newspapers was not to generate a profit, but to ensure that people living in occupied territories and front-line regions got the news," Hnatchenko said. "It's impossible to offer a subscription service in these areas, because people don't know where they will be from one day to the next due to the constant shelling." "Many grandmothers would walk to humanitarian hubs by foot as they were determined to get the newspaper," added Hnatchenko. This has now come to a halt due to a lack of funds. US grants previously made up 50% of the Slobidskyi Kray's funding — while nine out of 10 local Ukrainian outlets were also heavily reliant on USAID. Hnatchenko fears that cuts to USAID are playing into the hands of the Kremlin, leaving many vulnerable individuals who are exposed to Russian disinformation, with no alternative news sources. "It's a real issue, we can no longer afford to deliver our newspapers to areas which have no electricity or access to Ukrainian news. Many occupied and frontline territories also do not have Ukrainian signal but instead Russian signal, which is a trap," said Hnatchenko. While Ukraine's media market has proven resilient, a report conducted by the media monitoring organisation Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF) prior to the axing of USAID funding found that Ukrainian media outlets needed $96 million (€86.3 million) over a three-year period to cover their costs. 'There are no current figures on how many Ukrainian media outlets have had to close down since the end of USAID, but we know that more 330 outlets have had to shut down since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine,' Pauline Maufrais, Ukraine area manager for RSF, told Euronews. 'Russian propaganda outlets rejoiced in the end of USAID because it weakens the coverage from Ukrainian outlets especially in areas which are close to the front,' said Maufrais. In January, RSF published an investigation into the International Reporters outlet, which publishes Moscow's propaganda and sends its contributors — such as French citizen and naturalised Russian national Christelle Néant — to interview the local population in occupied eastern Ukraine, including Avdiivka and Mariupol. The International Reporters outlet is just one of the many Kremlin-funded propaganda networks, which use foreign propagandists to justify Russia's invasion of Ukraine internationally. "If there are fewer journalists in the Ukrainian media because there are not enough financial resources to pay them back, this means that less topics will be covered," said Maufrais. 'Since USAID cuts, media outlets are able to hire fewer freelancers, staffers have lost their jobs, but it also means that there is less coverage on the ground coming out from Ukraine." "Some outlets are running with only a few weeks of financing left, while others have said they can online survive until June," Maufrais added. Vgoru Media, based in Kherson — a city on the front lines of the war which was occupied by Russia for a period of nine months — previously relied on USAID to fund 80% of its projects. "We have had to cut big projects, such as our documentary telling the story of women who were kidnapped and tortured by Russia, as all the funding was from USAID," Ustyn Danchuk, head of video journalism at Gwara Media told Euronews. "We had already made 60% of the film when the cuts were implemented — but we hadn't even been paid for that work," he explained. Many Vgoru journalists left Kherson when it was under Russian occupation, fearing being captured and tortured. Since they have returned, they must live with the daily threat of missiles, as well as constant fear. For Danchuk, reporting and ensuring that locals don't fall for Russian disinformation is key. "I produce a video format where I walk around the streets of Kherson and ask people questions. What I have found is that young and middle-aged people want justice for Ukraine if the war is to end, they do not want swathes of the country to be handed over in exchange for peace," he explained. But this might not be enough, and the Kremlin's influence is still felt among the residents, Danchuk said. His outlet was also forced to cut a fact-checking video project countering Russian historical myths — one of the key tools in Moscow's propaganda arsenal. "I see that a lot of older people fall for the Russian narrative, many believe that 'we have to make peace with Russians, that every conflict ends and that we must be friends again.'" "We are continuing to try and tackle disinformation through our articles, but we are able to do a lot less without USAID," concluded Danchuk.
France 24
3 days ago
- France 24
What Iran's reprisals against Israel reveal of its ballistic missile capabilities
Tehran reportedly planned to rain 1,000 missiles down on Israel in response to the launch of military strikes on Iran. So far, Iran has managed to fire around 350 missiles, according to estimates published by the Israeli media citing the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). 'As of now, Iran's counterattacks don't seem to be very effective … I think the missile threat turns out to be, to some extent, overstated,' says Pieter Wezeman, a researcher with the Arms Transfers Programme at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Before Israel launched its offensive, Iran's missile arsenal was considered one of its principal sources of deterrence. '[Iran's deterrence] was very much based on two legs. One leg – which had been significantly, let's say, disturbed or destroyed by Israel – was the so-called proxies: Hezbollah, Hamas and their ability to fire missiles and do other things. And the other significant leg was the missile force,' says Wezeman, who has written about the threat posed by missile proliferation throughout the Middle East. Estimates vary, but 'Israeli intelligence – the best information on this subject – had put the number [of Iranian missiles] at 3,000 or so before the war', says Frank Ledwidge, a specialist in military capabilities and strategy at the University of Portsmouth in the UK. This impressive number of missiles would mean that Iran had 'the largest stockpile in the Middle East', Australian public broadcaster ABC News reported, citing the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence. But this new war with Israel has shown a gap between theory and practice. First, the Israeli army targeted the infrastructure necessary for Iran to fire its missiles right from the start of hostilities. 'I would say that [Iran's arsenal] has now significantly been reduced – at least 50 percent,' Ledwidge says. Second, not all of Iran's missiles have the capacity to reach Israel, which is more than 1,000km from Iran. This means that only the longest-range missiles can strike the Jewish state, according to an analysis by Dutch researcher Ralph Savelsberg for the BreakingDefense website on June 13. Variants of Soviet-era Scud missiles developed by Iran are able to reach targets at a maximum range of less than 700km. Among the devices capable of hitting Israel are those "based on collaborations with North Korea, such as the Ghadr and Khorramshahr [medium-range ballistic missiles], but also advanced solid-propellant ballistic missiles,' Savelsberg writes. These are the missiles that are most dangerous for Israel and its famous air defense systems. But the nec plus ultra of Iran's ballistic arsenal does not represent the majority of missiles available. "Most are older-generation [missiles]. We're talking a few hundred of the modern ones," says Ledwidge. 'Haj Qassem' and 'Qassem Bashir' It's difficult to assess the extent to which Iran has deployed its most effective missiles so far. One thing is certain: Iran has been deploying both drones and missiles in tandem to increase their effects. "The drones essentially serve to distract Israeli defences to improve the missiles' chances of getting through," says Ledwige. 'It's a bit more complex than decoys, but [the drones] essentially soak up Israeli air defense capability,' Ledwidge says. Among the missiles that hit their targets, "those that struck Tel Aviv on Monday were likely the most modern versions of Iranian hypersonic missiles", Ledwige says. These include the "Fattah" models, which are among the fastest, as well as weapons that Tehran had apparently never used before. Iran has claimed since Sunday to have fired two relatively recent models – the Haj Qassem and Qassem Bashir missiles – that are capable of defeating the world's best air defense systems, including Israeli missile shields and the US-made Patriot system. The former was developed in 2021 and named in honour of Qassem Soleimani, the former commander of the Revolutionary Guards' elite Al-Quds Force who was assassinated in a 2020 US drone strike. The Qassem Bashir was unveiled in May. These new missiles offer more advantages: their speed – they can reach Mach 5, or more than 6,000 km/h – and the fact that they are powered by solid, rather than liquid, propellant. Having engines running on solid fuel "makes them easier to transport, hide, and faster to deploy', Wezeman says, because the missiles don't need to be fuelled up just before firing. Theory vs. Practice These new missiles offer another advantage. 'The hypersonic missiles (which go beyond speeds of Mach 5) of course have a manoeuvrable re-entry vehicle," says Ledwidge. In other words, they are harder to intercept, in that they can adjust their trajectory – either because they are remotely controlled, or because they are partially autonomous, meaning they can change course just before reaching the target co-ordinates based on the defensive measures deployed to counter them, Wezeman explained. In theory, then, this type of missile could indeed defeat any anti-aircraft system – but everything depends on execution. "As of now, Iran's counterattacks don't seem to be very effective, or as effective as they said. Israeli defenses have intercepted most of them," Wezeman says. Analysts are sceptical that Iran is saving its most powerful missiles for later in the conflict in the hopes of not further escalating tensions. 'Iran is not making a strong impression [militarily] at the moment," says Wezeman. "It cannot afford to look weak. So we could assume they are using their best missiles." Ledwidge says that, strategically, saving the best for last makes little sense. "it's better to use your best weapons at the beginning – before Israel destroys them – since they are priority targets," he says.
