Dutch

Thursday

Sam Kriss

There is little sadder than the death of a language

From our UK edition

The last Yana-speaker in the world died in 1916. When Ishi was born, the Yana were still a small but healthy collection of tribes ranging the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, where they lived off what they could hunt and the salmon they caught in the rivers. But gold had been discovered in California and every year tens of thousands of settlers were arriving to stake out a claim. When Ishi was four years old, there was a massacre of Yana people near what’s now Mill Creek; Ishi’s father was one of the people killed. The last few survivors disappeared into the hills. The white settlers never encountered them again; as far as they knew the Yana had been wiped out.

Friday

Samuel Dutschmann

Dutch farmers are fighting for freedom

Dutch farmers have had enough of government overreach. And they’re taking to the streets as only farmers can. The government of the Netherlands, in order to fight climate change, recently proposed a 50 percent cut in ammonia and nitrous oxide emissions by 2030 — which will disproportionately impact the agricultural industry. Small farms are thus faced with two choices: shutter entirely or face poverty after culling their livestock. The Dutch government is not sympathetic to these concerns. In their words, “The honest message...is that not all farmers can continue their business.

Thursday

Senay Boztas

Wilders loses ground as Rutte wins again in the Dutch election

From our UK edition

Despite a childcare benefits scandal that led to the resignation of the government en masse, much-criticised delays in its vaccination programme and national riots over a coronavirus curfew, the status quo will remain largely intact after a general election in the Netherlands. With nearly nine in ten votes counted, it looks almost certain that 'caretaker' prime minister Mark Rutte will be building a new coalition government and leading the country for a fourth time. His People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) is expected to win another two seats, taking his total to 35 out of the 150 places in the lower house.

Wednesday

Senay Boztas

Inside the Dutch anti-lockdown riots

From our UK edition

Images of Dutch rioters throwing stones and fireworks at police, looting shops and facing water cannon have been published all around the world. This is not the typical image of a nation that likes to think of itself as nuchter and normaal — sober and sensible — in contrast to other parts of Europe, it sees as impulsive or, even worse, undemocratic.  But in the last four nights, after the Netherlands imposed a 9 p.m. curfew to combat the spread of coronavirus, elements of the country appear to have gone entirely off-script.