RYB Netherlands

RYB Global Development connects citizens, NGOs, and changemakers across 193 countries. Telegram:

[RYB Netherlands @RYB_NL]

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan faces removal vote: What’s the case about? "she said he touched her intimately while she was pretending to be asleep..." https://t.co/HeN3f9Eoj8

[RYB Netherlands @RYB_NL]

Stemt #Nederland voor het ontslag van ICC-hoofdaanklager Karim Khan? Wat zegt dat over Nederland?

[Sunniva Rose @Sunniva_Rose]

An unprecedented vote is to take place later today in New York to decide on the fate of ICC chief prosecutor Karim Khan. The 125 states of the court’s governing body will vote with an absolute majority of 63 votes required for him to be removed. 🇫🇷🇳🇱 will vote in favour.

[RYB Netherlands @RYB_NL]

@ValavdBoomen Wat je niet ziet (politics): de vergrijzing, en wat regeringen ondertussen in werkelijkheid doen. "Italy will admit nearly 500,000 non-EU workers between 2026 and 2028 under a new #migration Flow Decree." https://t.co/x6WfzhI1bI

[RYB Netherlands @RYB_NL]

@ValavdBoomen Wat je niet ziet (politics): de vergrijzing, en wat regeringen ondertussen in werkelijkheid doen. "Italy will admit nearly 500,000 non-EU workers between 2026 and 2028 under a new #migration Flow Decree." https://t.co/x6WfzhI1bI

[Madelon Vos @MadelonVos__]

Jij: “Mijn beleggingen van €100.000 zijn dit jaar 10% in waarde gestegen.”

Overheid: “Mooi. Over die €10.000 waardestijging betaal je 36% belasting: €3.600.”

Jij: “Maar mijn inflatie was 8%. Mijn reële rendement (mijn koopkrachtwinst) was dus slechts ongeveer €2.000.”

Overheid: “Wij belasten het volledige nominale rendement.”

Jij: “Maar ik heb mijn beleggingen niet eens verkocht.”

Overheid: “Dat hoeft ook niet. De waardestijging telt als inkomen.”

Jij: “Dus ik betaal €3.600 belasting over winst die ik niet heb ontvangen, terwijl mijn koopkracht maar met ongeveer €2.000 is toegenomen?”

Overheid: “Klopt. We noemen dat ‘werkelijk rendement’.”

Jij: “Werkelijk nominaal rendement misschien. Mijn werkelijke koopkrachtwinst was maar €2.000.”

Overheid: “U maakt het onnodig ingewikkeld. U bent toch zeker geen econoom?”

[PeaceFem @Peace_Fem]

What the Spillover Score reveals about global responsibility: why doing well at home doesn't mean a country isn't harming the rest of the world. Check your country, the 2026 Spillover Score by Country:
https://t.co/oN6q6iscaK

[Anonymous TV 🇺🇦 @YourAnonTV]

🚨🇦🇱 BREAKING: Day 21 of mass protests in Tirana, Albania

✊️🇦🇱Over 350,000 people have taken to the streets, no longer asking, demanding Edi Rama’s resignation for selling Albanian land and Sazan Island to oligarchs and Kushner.

✊️The people have crossed the point of no return.
⚡️The old Albania is dying in these streets.

✊️🇦🇱NEW ALBANIA is rising.

#Albania #FlamingoRevolution

[Chris Murphy 🟧 @ChrisMurphyCT]

At the G7, the CEOs of the big AI companies sat at the table like heads of state, alongside presidents and prime ministers.

This is the nightmare scene.

Governments need to have a response to the state-like power of these companies, whether it’s by taking ownership shares, breaking them up into smaller entities, or imposing a regulatory structure that controls their power over citizens.

[dr. Marina @mmeeuw]

Jules Deelder "Als je in Rotterdam woont ben je Rotterdammer. Er is maar één wereld, die is van ons allemaal. We gaan allemaal dood, dat maakt ons mens. Rotterdam moet daar het voortouw innemen en heel de discussie over de splijtzwam der groepsvorming moeten we geen kans geven."

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

It always astonishes me how there is virtually ZERO public debate - or even public awareness - in Europe about the decisions that will most shape ordinary people's lives.

These days, the EU is drafting a new anti-China legal framework where - quite literally - the more affordable and competitive Chinese products are, the more illegal they'd become.

You'd think EU citizens would want to be informed about such things - as it couldn't be more consequential for their prosperity.

Yet I bet virtually no EU citizen is even aware of it, beyond a vague sense that there is some sort of trade dispute going on.

So what's going on exactly? It all centers around a new legal instrument the EU is drafting called the "overcapacity instrument" (https://t.co/mNpCMudYyS).

First of all, the very notion of "overcapacity" is pretty ridiculous to begin with, especially the way it's being defined by the EU, as it basically means being competitive enough to export.

By this definition of "overcapacity," pretty much every European industry that's ever run a trade surplus - German cars, French wine, Italian fashion - has been guilty of "overcapacity."

I'm not even exaggerating: if you read this study by the EU Parliament on "Industrial overcapacities, with a focus on China" (https://t.co/TcwEBoL8mD), they define "overcapacity" as building more capacity than your domestic market can absorb. So the moment you build capacity to export abroad, you're in "overcapacity."

Utterly ridiculous.

And what this "overcapacity instrument" is about is creating a permanent legal mechanism for the EU to block Chinese competition across whole sectors of the economy, if they happen to be in "overcapacity."

In effect, this means that if China is competitive globally in a given sector in such a way that it exports a lot, that's proof of overcapacity, and legally it'd mean that the entire sector can be restricted from the EU market.

Which means it really, factually, is a legal framework where the more affordable and competitive your products are, the more illegal they become.

Which is a CRAZY economic concept! 🤦‍���️

Please note that it's different from the anti-subsidy legal instrument, which the EU has already put in place in 2023 (the "Foreign Subsidies Regulation": https://t.co/SvPKFyN0zo).

This "overcapacity instrument" would be above and beyond this: it wouldn't even matter if a particular sector was subsidized by the Chinese government or not, the mere fact of its competitiveness in exports would be grounds for restrictions in the EU.

It doesn't take a genius to understand how badly this could impact everyday people: this is European consumers being forced to pay more for worse products by law, so that uncompetitive European firms don't have to improve.

Politicians frame it as avoiding a "China shock 2.0" but really this is choosing an even steeper self-inflicted decline than is already the case, where EU citizens would subsidize mediocre EU companies that would have even less pressure to catch up. It's a hidden tax: subsidies for uncompetitive firms paid by consumers instead of governments, which in turn makes them less incentivized to become competitive.

The first "China shock" did de-industrialize Europe somewhat, but at least it made things cheaper for European consumers. If this becomes Europe's response to a second "China shock" not only it'd make everything more expensive but it'd do nothing for EU industry: you don't become competitive by banning the competition...

Look at China itself: the way it industrialized was NOT by banning Western firms but on the contrary by welcoming them strategically and learning from them. You learn to compete by... competing, duh!

What I find most shocking in all of this isn't even the policy itself - you can make arguments for and against protectionism, and reasonable people can disagree.

What's shocking is that virtually no European media outlet is explaining any of this to the public. This is unarguably one of the single most consequential economic decisions the EU will make this decade, affecting the price of everything, and it's being drafted in near-total silence.

No newspaper is running the headline "EU plans to make Chinese goods illegal if they're too affordable" - even though that's essentially what's happening.

But that's what you call a "democracy" with "freedom of expression" these days apparently...

[Brenda Stoter Boscolo بريندا 💙 @brendaboscolo]

‘We are demanding of the European Commission to install a total and full halt on non-Western immigration, both legal and illegal. From now on, no one comes in and millions go out.’

Doodenge, knettergekke mensen.

[Al Jazeera English @AJEnglish]

A video of a Dutch policeman throwing a heavily pregnant woman to the ground has caused outrage. The woman says police attacked her at a migration centre where authorities had detained her Palestinian husband.

[VVD @VVD]

👉 Grote criminele kopstukken arresteren
👉 Drugshandel ontmantelen
👉 Uitleveringsverdragen met andere landen sluiten
👉 Crimineel drugsvermogen afpakken
👉 Vermenging van onder- en bovenwereld tegengaan

Onze @ministerjenv David van Weel over de aanpak van georganiseerde misdaad.

[Jason Smith - 上官杰文 @ShangguanJiewen]

China builds its urban spaces for the people.

Because it's the People's Republic of China.

https://t.co/Anl4iIhDoh

[RYB Netherlands @RYB_NL]

@DilanYesilgoz Ondertussen is alles wel duidelijk toch?
OSCE Reports Reveal Ukraine Started Shelling The Donbas Nine Days Before Russia's 'Special Military Operation'
🔹 https://t.co/ZqACG2zRz9

[RYB Netherlands @RYB_NL]

@DilanYesilgoz Ondertussen is alles wel duidelijk toch?
OSCE Reports Reveal Ukraine Started Shelling The Donbas Nine Days Before Russia's 'Special Military Operation'
🔹 https://t.co/ZqACG2zRz9

[Kajsa Ollongren @KajsaOllongren]

First meeting with EU Coordinator @EUAgainstAMH Marion Lalisse on our joint efforts to combat anti-Muslim hatred. To promote #HumanRights & Freedom of Religion or Belief globally, EU must lead by example. We stand united against all forms of faith-based discrimination & racism.

[Androulla Kaminara @AKaminara]

Breaking news!

European Citizens' Initiative (ECI) to suspend the 🇪🇺EU 🇮🇱Israel Association Agreement has passed the threshold for 11 countries and at 1,034,599 signatures now.

🇫🇷France 🇧🇪Belgium 🇪🇸Spain 🇮🇹Italy 🇮🇪Ireland 🇫🇮Finland 🇸🇪Sweden 🇩🇰Denmark 🇳🇱Netherlands 🇵🇱Poland 🇵🇹Portugal have passed the threshold. Incredible! 🫶🏾

We needed minimum 7 countries to pass the threshold.

We have 11 countries that passed the threshold.

For a European citizens' initiative to be valid, it must obtain at least one million valid signatures and meet the minimum thresholds in at least seven countries.

This was not just on track to reach the 1 Million threshold; this may well become the most supported EU Citizen Initiative EVER.

Please keep signing! Let's show the power of the people! 🇪🇺🕊️🙏🏾
https://t.co/8CSJ2sd0Zo

[Jeanne Perego 🥨 @jeperego]

Che splendido spot pubblicitario!

[RYB Netherlands @RYB_NL]

This is what deep #ambient #techno is supposed to feel like.
🔹 https://t.co/J0aBkKau59