Notices by Kees van der Leun (sustainable2050@mastodon.energy)

Now back home, she tells others thinking of going to Trump’s America: don’t do it.
Detained for 19 days. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/05/i-was-a-british-tourist-trying-to-leave-america-then-i-was-detained-shackled-and-sent-to-an-immigration-detention-centre?CMP=share_btn_url

Dismantling government 2.0:
Put a TV celebrity in charge of $1.5 trillion in essential healthcare schemes.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/03/health/dr-mehmet-oz-senate-confirmation.html?unlocked_article_code=1.9U4.3eqB.7c91GF_rDtYj&smid=url-share

OK, it's official now. The Netherlands' main meteorological station in De Bilt has its driest month of March on record (1901-), by far.
With just 1.5 mm of rain, it was 97.4% below 'normal' (58 mm) and 79% below the 1929 record so far (7.1 mm).
No rain foreseen for the coming 14 days either.
#extremeweather #ClimateChange #ClimatechangeisWaterchange

The national average March rainfall was also the lowest on record: 6 mm vs 53 'normal', i.e. 89 % less.
https://www.knmi.nl/over-het-knmi/nieuws/recorddroge-maart-met-veel-zon/

Actually, it seems a pretty good idea to ban convicted embezzlers from running for president.

Le Pen and 24 party members, including nine former members of the European parliament and their 12 assistants, were found guilty of a vast scheme over many years to embezzle European parliament funds, by using money earmarked for European parliament assistants to instead pay party workers in France.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/31/marine-le-pen-barred-from-running-for-french-presidency-in-2027

Not the Atacama desert. But similar rainfall this month, here in central Netherlands. 0.6 mm so far and only a drop or two expected. Bound to become the driest in the 125-year record.
#ClimateChange #extremeweather

The fact that Netanyahu himself empowered Hamas is rarely mentioned by our politicians and media.
He preferred a real enemy above the Palestinian Authority that he would have to find a negotiated solution with.

How Netanyahu's Hamas policy came back to haunt him — and Israel
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/netanyahu-israel-gaza-hamas-1.7010035

50,000 people killed by Israel in Gaza. Dutch @trouw.nl has the first part of the list of their names on its front page today. The list is ranked by age; these victims were all zero years old.

In a rebuke to the Trump administration and its public campaign to gain control of Greenland, four of the territory’s five parties signed a new coalition agreement on Friday, which states on page one: “Greenland belongs to us.”

Interesting perspective for any country hosting US military bases: one day, the US VP can fly in and tell the troops there that they should take gain control of your country.
Ah wait, I live in one of those countries!

JD Vance tells US troops in Greenland, stationed in that part of the Kingdom of Denmark under an agreement with Denmark, that the US has to gain control of Greenland.
About as aggressive as it gets. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/mar/28/greenland-political-parties-agree-to-form-coalition-government-before-jd-vance-visit

Fascinating how Trump still gets away with selling tariffs as taxes on foreign countries.
One of these days, his voters will find out he is making them pay instead.

Trump's words and actions seem to embolden others like him. Netanyahu resuming his genocide, Erdoğan removing opposition leaders, Putin intensifying attacks against Ukrainian civilians while talking about a ceasefire.
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0egjvj8vdro

The one stain on that demonstration against the far-right in Amsterdam today: a speaker from the organisation saying that we shouldn't send more weapons to the war(s) - i.e. including Ukraine - but seek the dialogue with Putin c.s. Which is what the far-right says it wants: the horseshoe at work.

Putin is a big supporter of the western far-right, Einstein!
More, bigger, stronger weapons to Ukraine, please. Help them win.

Anyway, that speaker wasn't speaking on behalf of all of us, and it was still good to be part of this demonstration.

Finally, a large protest against the far-right and racism in the Netherlands. Amsterdam, right now.

Warmest day on record for the Netherlands, this early in the year: 21.9°C at De Bilt, today!

@daedalean Yes, full of euphemisms like "ICE strictly enforced the rules" :)

Looks like the transatlantic airline business may soon start to experience a significant drop, as tourists, scientists, and business people find out about the recent horror stories about US Immigration procedures.
Just one example: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly67j35y99o