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The author stated that the Dutch population had grown from just over 1.1 million since early 2016 to approximately 18.1 million. According to the author, around 173,000 people had died and 167,000 babies had been born in 2025, resulting in negative natural growth and the total growth coming entirely from migration. The author referred to Jan Latten, who estimated the group of Dutch origin at about 12.9 million, and wrote that this group was expected to shrink by 1 to 2 million over the coming decades. By 2050, according to the author, the Netherlands would have about 20 million inhabitants. The author argued that the changing population composition put pressure on social and cultural relations, social cohesion, the welfare state, and the housing market. It was written that rapid changes complicated integration and increased parallel societies and clashing norms and values. According to the author, politicians focused too much on symptom treatment and paid too little attention to population growth due to migration and low birth rates among the indigenous population. The author praised Latten for his expertise and warned that politics, media, and society needed to take demographic changes seriously. https://t.co/wVfulQlN6k #demografie #migratie #socialecohesie (translated)

Beatrice Achterberg wrote that the atmosphere between the Chancellor and the youth was overall better at the Germany Day 2026 than in the previous year. Nevertheless, a delegate from the Bavaria state association urged Merz to ask the Federal President for his resignation if he cared about the country. https://t.co/1gR2J2nLes #Deutschlandtag #Politik #JungeMenschen (translated)

Regina Laska criticized that Donald Trump had suspended the Russia sanctions that he himself signed in mid-September and which were supposed to come into effect automatically the next day. She wrote that tariffs of up to 100 percent on large consumers of Russian oil and gas, levies of up to 500 percent on Russian goods, and measures against the shadow fleet and banks were planned. Two days before the deadline, Trump resorted to an exception that allowed for a waiver in the national interest; according to Laska, he did not provide a justification. As a possible background, Laska mentioned a diesel deal announced by Trump with Vladimir Putin. The U.S. Treasury Department had granted a license to Russian energy producers for that until April; furthermore, a U.S. government representative said that easing penalties against the shadow fleet was being considered. Laska connected this with the upcoming U.S. elections in two and a half weeks and high fuel prices. However, Trump blamed Ukraine for the prices, claiming they had attacked Russian refineries, she wrote. According to Laska, Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's representative for business with the U.S., was already talking about joint data centers and small nuclear power plants. Dmitriev reportedly said, "the ice is beginning to break." She also pointed out that Congress passed the sanctions by a large majority and that the law was named after Lindsey Graham, who had died in July. She wrote that seven Republican senators had urged Trump to reverse the diesel deal. Regarding Volodymyr Zelensky's reaction to the question in Brussels about whether Trump was making him a scapegoat, Laska wrote that he had remained silent for 15 seconds, grinned, and said, "That is my answer." Laska stated that she concurred with his reaction but refrained from grinning. #Trump #Ukraine #Sanktionen (translated)

U.S. President Donald Trump has suspended the sanctions against Russia approved by Congress, as he claims this is in the national interest of the U.S., while at the same time approaching Russia and concluding a controversial diesel deal with Moscow. #Trump #Sanktionen #Russland (translated)

Apollo News reported that a student was severely beaten by youths in Frankfurt (Oder) on Wednesday. Videos reportedly showed the allegedly migrant perpetrators kicking the head of the victim lying on the ground. The police have requested that the recordings not be disseminated. https://t.co/EYnPbX8xfQ #FrankfurtOder #Gewalt #Schüler (translated)

Josh Wander, former owner of Standard Liège and co-founder of 777 Partners, pleaded guilty to electronic fraud and securities fraud in the United States, facing up to twenty years in prison after defrauding more than $500 million from lenders and investors using fake financial documents. #Fraude #StandardDeLiège #777Partners (translated)

Sander Sassen wrote that Rob Jetten's call for all possible support for Ukraine amounted, in his view, to prolonging a war of attrition. He argued that the front line barely moved, that the Russian economy had adapted, and that Western munitions stocks and political support were finite. According to Sassen, diplomatic solutions were wrongly dismissed as a sign of weakness. Sassen referred to Ukrainian estimates of more than 1.5 million Russian dead and wounded and to Western analyses, including those from CSIS, which he claimed spoke of hundreds of thousands of casualties and over one hundred thousand deaths in Ukraine. He argued that the war constituted a demographic disaster for both countries and that further pressure from sanctions and weapons would result in more casualties. Negotiations, according to Sassen, were not capitulation but the way to end the war. He claimed that a full Ukrainian recapture of the borders of 1991 was militarily unrealistic without direct NATO intervention, risking a war with Russia. He advocated for territorial compromises, likely along the current front line, security guarantees for the remaining Ukraine, and an end to mobilization. He noted that Ukrainian men were forcibly taken off the streets in this process. Sassen acknowledged that such compromises would feel unjust and could reward aggression, but argued that they were better than continuing the current bloodshed. He accused Jetten and like-minded individuals of blocking serious diplomacy and urged the Prime Minister to immediately pursue a diplomatic solution. #Oorlog #Diplomatie #Vrede (translated)