Editor Brian Harrod Provides Comprehensive up-to-date news coverage, with aggregated news from sources all over the world from the Roundup Newswires Network
An exciting new research project by the Guardian and Team Populism shows empirically what many have asserted and felt: the world is getting more populist. Professor Kirk Hawkins, from Brigham Young University in Utah, and 46 researchers analysed 728 public addresses by 140 presidents and prime ministers in 40 countries, in Europe and the Americas. This is the largest comparative project of this nature I am aware of, and a treasure trove for academics and journalists.
The study shows not just that the number of populist leaders has doubled, but that the average populist content of political leaders’ speeches has doubled too. Where political speeches were on average “not populist” in 2004, they are approaching “somewhat populist” today. To be clear, most of the political leaders studied were “not populist”, but that is to be expected of this particular subset of politicians, ie national leaders. Even today, populism is still primarily a feature of political challengers, who were not included in this study.
E-bikes now outsell standard bicycles in Netherlands, with quality prized more than price
In what was already a long-running purple patch for the Dutch cycle industry, domestic sales records have been broken in the last 12 months despite spiralling prices, as technological developments push the standard push-bike into the annals of history.
Authorities say investigations led to suspicions the haul was to be taken to Pyongyang
Dutch customs officials at the port of Rotterdam have seized 90,000 bottles of vodka believed to be destined for the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and his army chiefs.
The discovery, on the eve of Kim’s two-day summit with Donald Trump in Hanoi, was made after Dutch authorities flagged up the suspicious route and records of a Chinese-owned container ship, Nebula.
As the world’s first junior cycle mayor, Lotta Crok wants to draw attention to the obstacles kids on bikes face – and inspire other children to cycle
During Amsterdam’s chaotic rush hour, nine-year-old Lotta Crok cycles to a very busy junction. “Look,” she says. “There’s traffic coming from everywhere. Four trams from four different directions. For a child on a bike that’s really confusing!”
Lotta is the first junior cycle mayor in the world and her working area is the Dutch capital. It is her mission to inspire children to cycle every day and draw attention to the obstacles that kids on bikes are facing.
Rutger Bregman never intended to take billionaires to task over tax at World Economic Forum
Rutger Bregman had not really intended to stick it to the global elite. He never meant to have a pop at the idea that inequality could be solved by philanthropy or inviting Bono to Davos. But when the Dutch historian decided to go off-piste at the World Economic Forum and tell the assembled billionaires they should stop avoiding paying tax, he became an overnight social media sensation.
“It’s been a crazy week and just for stating the obvious,” said Bregman, when asked about a panel discussion at the WEF last month in which he said the issue was “taxes, taxes, taxes, and all the rest is bullshit in my opinion”.
European Medicines Agency heads for Amsterdam 63 days before Brexit
The European Medicines Agency, one of the biggest EU regulators and one of the first casualties of Brexit, has closed its doors in the UK for the last time with the loss of 900 jobs.
Staff lowered and folded up the 28 national flags that adorned the lobby in London’s Canary Wharf headquarters on Friday night and bid farewell before moving to their new offices in Amsterdam.
Shinzō Abe will first visit the Netherlands, where many Japanese firms are relocating ahead of Brexit
Japan’s prime minister, Shinzō Abe, who is to meet Theresa May in London on Thursday, will underscore the damage Brexit is likely to have on Japanese investment in Britain by first visiting the Netherlands, the country to which many UK-based Japanese firms are redeploying ahead of the UK’s departure from the EU.
The choice of the Netherlands as the other stop on Abe’s mini-European tour is not a coincidence since he will also be given a chance to be briefed on how a no-deal Brexit could clog the flow of trade into Rotterdam, the main gateway for Japanese and British firms into the EU single market.
Foreign minister says there is ‘strong’ evidence Iran directed killings of two Dutch nationals
Iran has been accused by the Dutch government of directing two political assassinations in the Netherlands, triggering EU sanctions against Tehran’s military intelligence service.
The two murders are alleged to have taken place in broad daylight in 2015 in Almere, a city east of Amsterdam, and in 2017 on a street close to the Dutch foreign ministry in The Hague.
Firm used Dutch shell company in move known as ‘double Irish, Dutch sandwich’ that cuts its foreign tax bill
Google moved €19.9bn ($22.7bn) through a Dutch shell company to Bermuda in 2017, as part of an arrangement that allows it to reduce its foreign tax bill, according to documents filed at the Dutch chamber of commerce.
The amount channelled through Google Netherlands Holdings BV was about €4bn more than in 2016, the documents, filed on 21 December, showed.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney General for National Security John C. Demers, left, speaks as U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Pennsylvania Scott W. Brady, 3rd from left, FBI Deputy Assistant Director for Cyber Division Eric Welling, 2nd from left, and Director General Mark Flynn, right, for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police listen during a news conference to announce criminal charges Thursday.
Russian relations could get worse before they get better, the deputy director general of a prominent security think tank has said. Professor Malcolm Chalmers, from the Royal United Services Institute, highlighted how diplomatic links between the two countries are currently at "the lowest point" since the end of the Cold War.
Yesterday we learned that the United Nations International Court of Justice had issued an "order" for the United States to lift sanctions on Iran. Their decision was based on an antiquated 1955 "friendship treaty" between Iran and America, put in place long before Iran's Islamic revolution.
In response to a U.N. court order that the U.S. lift sanctions on Iran, the Trump administration said Wednesday it was terminating a decades-old treaty affirming friendly relations between the two countries. The largely symbolic gesture highlights deteriorating relations between Washington and Tehran.
National Security Adviser John Bolton appears to be spiraling down into the same miasma of madness that possesses other members of the Trump administration - perhaps caused by a microbe carried in Trump's sniffle. This week he threatened justices of the International Criminal Court in the Hague with physical abduction were they to dare indict an American for war crimes committed in Afghanistan.
The Trump administration ordered the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington on Monday and threatened sanctions against the International Criminal Court if it pursues investigations against the U.S., Israel, or other allies. The moves are likely to harden Palestinian resistance to the U.S. role as a peace broker.
Technically true since its creation, but John Bolton wants to make the point excruciatingly clear . Neither the US nor Israel participates in the treaty that established the International Criminal Court, AKA "The Hague," which means that it takes an act of the UN Security Council to charge nationals of either nation .
An online story falsely claims a federal appeals court ordered former President Barack Obama to pay $400 million in "restitution" to the United States for money supposedly lost in a transaction with "hard-liners" in Iran. The Daily World Update article cites a nonexistent West Texas Federal Appeals Court for the 33rd District; there is no federal appeals court in Texas.
For the first time since the end of the Vietnam War more than four decades ago, a US Navy aircraft carrier will set anchor in the country Monday. Publicly, the United States has portrayed the four-day visit by the USS Carl Vinson and its contingent of 5,000 sailors and aviators as an historic opportunity to enhance the budding friendship that has emerged between the two former foes.
Matt Lauer was fired so quickly 'because NBC intern he propositioned during Sochi Olympics had at least one explicit photo and lewd messages on her phone from shamed Today host' Dawn of a new Today: Exhausted-looking Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Hoda Kotb all smiles at the end of NBC's day of hell as they host Rockefeller Christmas Tree lighting WITHOUT Matt Lauer 'Karma is a b****': Joy Behar and Rose McGowan lead celebrities delighted to see Matt Lauer sacked from NBC - while Keith Olbermann accuses network of 'enabling' him Kathie Lee Gifford compares the Matt Lauer sexual misconduct allegations to finding out her husband cheated while Hoda Kotb calls for 'love' just hours before lurid details of claims against their Today colleague surfaced Natalie Morales champions 'courageous' Today staffer who has accused Matt Lauer of sexual misconduct and again denies she had an affair him ... (more)