Three bombs go off on an average night in the Netherlands, blowing out windows and sometimes causing injury or death.
the blasts, usually caused by illegal fireworks with the strength of a grenade, have created a sense of unease.
The explosions have shaken communities across the Netherlands: In the first half of this year, the authorities recorded nearly 700 such bombings. The explosions cause fear, damage homes and livelihoods, and have occasionally led to deaths or injuries.
This is last year’s news, no idea why the New York Times is reporting on it now. At least I’ve hardly read about this since last year.
One of these bombs, which are often used to intimidate (one particularly bad case is mentioned in the article), even targeted a house near mine in Rotterdam. I didn’t notice a thing, though.
This is last year’s news, no idea why the New York Times is reporting on it now. At least I’ve hardly read about this since last year.
No, it’s not. This happened this year (Dutch source).
Still, the article is fearmongering as 500 explosions include a whole bunch of idiots with illegal fireworks closely after the start of the new year. They are annoying, but fuck off quickly enough.
I mean this being something that’s widely reported on. It still happens, obviously.
Right wing fear mongering propaganda.
The corporate US wants absolute power and still have control of the far right enough to accomplish it.
The last thing they want is a populist left wing uprising, and by painting left wing bastions of Europe as chaotic and “under siege” they hope to prevent it from happening again.
I have a feeling left(ish) media in the US are trying to gain more right(ish) leaders / the whole US media landscape is moving right. Could also be that more Trump-aligned media is looking for international ‘news’ to deflect from national news. Both are speculations obviously i don’t know either.
Meanwhile GB News in Britain https://feddit.org/post/17133650
Our Dutch friends are not alone with this problem. Dutch intel warned in April this year of Russia ramping up hybrid attacks against the Netherlands and the rest of Europe.
Another reminder why Europe needs to wake up, and that a substantial part of Nato countries’ defense spending is dedicated to non-military defense such exactly these bombings, arson attacks, inflammable parcels, and similar violence against the population.
I just posted some reports in another thread, and it fits also here:
In May 2025, a report titled, “Testing the waters: Suspected Russian activity challenges Europe’s support for Ukraine”, listed 190 events since 2022 across Europe (you’ll find tables and map in the article), ranging from arson to cyber attacks, form jamming to vandalism, from flammable parcels to drone overflights, and form physical attacks to spying. The report states that the real number is probably higher than the reported 190.
Another investigation in the UK released just in July 2025 shows a massive surge in arson attacks in London neighbourhoods in 3 years as arson offences across the city have increased by 28 per cent, from 1,894 incidents reported in 2022 to 2,430 recorded in 2024, according to data published by the London Assembly. A quarter of those involved people aged 17 and under, according to the London Fire Brigade.
In April this year, Chinese officials have implicitly acknowledged responsibility for a series of sophisticated cyber intrusions targeting critical U.S. infrastructure as representatives from China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs indirectly linked years of computer network breaches at U.S. ports, water utilities, airports, and other critical targets to increasing U.S. policy support for Taiwan.
This is just a start. You’ll find much more across many independent sources.
This doesn’t have anything to do with Russia, but with organised crime. Unless you have other information.
russia is deeply involved in organized crime and has been for a long time. that’s part of hybrid warfare
Another Dutchy here, Russia has been suspected of both spionage and sabotage here and there also in The Netherlands but haven’t heard them being tied to any of these explosions. These explosions have been a problem for 10+ years. The amount of explosions has increased over time and the problem is only getting bigger. Russia might feel inspired or use this method to hide their involvement, but it in general those two problems have their own source.
I follow Dutch media daily and haven’t heard anything about Russia being involved.
Three a night? Umph. Recently, there were some of those in Rotterdam, line of sight from where my daughter lives. But she is not really concerned about this.
I mean, three a night is more than you’d want of course but across an entire country it doesn’t seem that high? Dunno what it was like before this year (I hear the occasional one where I live but nothing too crazy) but I’m not sure how significant of an increase this is compared to last year or the year before.
1000+ a year now, few years back it was maybe half. I can also imagine the damage per explosion is increasing, but not sure.
I wouldn’t say they have shaken communities. There’s also bombs going off in the sky nearby, because the German tourists are coming over in droves and they apparently love firework. Bombs. In the sky. Madness. Lights appear slightly before you hear the bombs go off. Crazy stuff y’all, stay safe.
Dutch are on average very motivated to have fun with fireworks and recently some new laws are taking those freedoms away. This seems the precise response everyone saw coming from miles away. This is just the next phase of the new legislation, enforcement…
I disagree, even though this is illegal fireworks they are manipulated to do damage and intimidate people. The recent laws banning a lot of firework has to do with how it is used by criminals, not the other way around.
Reading this in Dutch news: yeah, thanks for the news update
Reading this in US news outlet: yeah, thanks for the fear mongering
700 explosions this year with the strength of a grenade?! That’s insane
