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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)

Geert Dales wrote that Bas Haan had properly highlighted the issue surrounding former mayor of Groningen Koen Schuiling according to him at Pauw & De Wit. Dales reported that Schuiling had been convicted again that day in appeal for masturbating in his car. The police chief in Groningen who had reported Schuiling was, according to Dales, his deputy police chief in Fryslân when he was mayor of Leeuwarden. Dales called the man homophobic and macho and referred to his Surinamese background. He urged Haan and Saskia Belleman to investigate that aspect, advised Schuiling to file for cassation, and wrote that Schuiling had been wronged significantly. #Groningen #homosexualiteit #rechtspraak (translated)

Historian and journalist Hubert Smeets criticizes in his column the possibility of a new unjust agreement between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, which would force Ukraine to capitulate without real peace, and points out the consequences for the Ukrainian population and the geopolitical situation in Europe. #Oekraïne #Poetin #Trump (translated)

Joren Vermeersch wrote that he did not view the closure of Starlink for Ukrainian drone operations on Ukrainian territory as a lever to make Ukraine stop attacking Russian refineries. According to him, Ukraine had already unilaterally halted those attacks at Trump's request. Vermeersch suspected that Trump might want to force Ukraine to withdraw from the non-occupied parts of the Donetsk province and hand them over to Russia. He derived this from Trump's statements that Zelensky did not want to reach an agreement and that Putin was more focused on an agreement than Zelensky. According to Vermeersch, Trump seemed to think that Putin would be willing to negotiate a ceasefire after such a Ukrainian concession. He described that expectation as dangerous wishful thinking and pointed out that, in his view, Putin also claimed the non-conquered parts of Zaporizhia and Kherson. According to Vermeersch, Russia had constitutionally annexed those provinces; the claimed areas also included both provincial capitals. A Russian presence there would give Russia, according to him, a foothold on the right bank of the Dnipro in two places, in view of a possible third phase of the conquest war. As the main obstacle to a ceasefire, Vermeersch mentioned Putin's demand that Ukraine unilaterally disarm and demilitarize. According to him, that would amount to capitulation and certainly provoke a new invasion. He wrote that Putin had repeated that demand in every diplomatic round, including during the last round in Moscow the month before, with Witkoff and Kuchner. Vermeersch believed that Trump was wrongly thinking that Putin did not take that demand seriously. Vermeersch argued that Ukraine could not afford dangerous wishful thinking, as it was fighting for the survival of its society, people, and state. Because Putin continued to insist on unconditional capitulation, Ukraine was forced to keep defending itself. He wrote that it would continue to do so until it achieved a ceasefire that left it free in the part of the country it had successfully defended. #Oekraïne #Rusland #Vrede (translated)

The Court of Appeal for Trade and Industry has decided that an investigation must still be conducted into the whether or not unlawful docking of pigs' tails at three pig farmers, despite the earlier decision by the Secretary of State for Agriculture not to take further action. #varkensstaarten #dierenwelzijn #landbouw (translated)

This means that many pregnant women and their possible partners are unduly made worried about their pregnancy, while many others have received an incorrect favorable result. Hermans also announces in the letter that she wants to further investigate the entire prenatal screening process. #dertienwekenecho #zwangerschap #gezondheidszorg (translated)

"This means that many pregnant women and their potential partners are wrongly made anxious about their pregnancy, while many others are wrongly given a favorable result." Hermans also announces in the letter that she wants to further investigate the entire prenatal screening. #13wekenecho #zwangerschap #gezondheidszorg (translated)

"With this return, we contribute to the restoration of historical injustice. These objects have great cultural and historical value for Indonesia. They should never have been in the Netherlands. We are now righting this wrong." #TeruggaveCultuur #Kolonialisme #DiamantVanBanjarmasin (translated)

"I grew up with a strong sense of injustice all around me," she said in December 2003 in an interview with the Volkskrant in Tanzania, her then-base as president of the Rwandan tribunal. "As a child of 4, I was told that I could not go to the beach to swim. I felt my parents' fear, saw how they were treated by the whites. I noticed that at school we received old books and desks, the cast-offs from the white schools." #NaviPillay #Mensenrechten #Apartheid (translated)