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THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof on Saturday canceled a trip to United Nations climate talks in Azerbaijan so that he can stay in the Netherlands to deal with the fallout from assaults on fans of Maccabi Tel Aviv soccer team in Amsterdam that authorities condemned as antisemitic.
The government will discuss the Thursday night violence at a Cabinet meeting on Monday, Schoof posted on X, saying that he would hold talks on tackling antisemitism on Tuesday.
Police launched a large-scale investigation after gangs of youths conducted what Amsterdam’s mayor called “hit and run” attacks on fans that were apparently inspired by calls on social media to target Jewish people. Five people were treated at hospitals and more than 60 suspects were arrested.

Amsterdam prosecutors said that four of the suspects, including two minors, remained jailed Saturday and would be arraigned next week. The prosecutors said in a statement that they expect more arrests as investigators comb through video images of the violence.
None of the arrests made so far were for violence after the match, prosecutors said.
Israeli police assisting the Dutch investigation said in a statement that officers and forensic identification experts met fans returning on nine flights from Amsterdam.
“Among them were over 170 witnesses and more than 230 victims, and forensic evidence has been collected from dozens of them,” the statement said, adding that they also had gathered videos of violent incidents in the Dutch capital.
In addition to the police investigation and an independent inquiry announced by Amsterdam’s mayor, Dutch Justice and Security Minister David van Weel said in a letter to lawmakers that the government is investigating whether warnings of possible violence from Israel were overlooked in the lead up to the Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar rushed to the Netherlands on Friday and offered Israel’s help in the police investigation. He met Saturday with Dutch counterpart Caspar Veldkamp and with Schoof.
Schoof said on X that he told Saar, “that the Dutch government is doing everything it can to ensure that the Jewish community in our country feels safe.”
In a statement released after meeting, Saar said that he told Schoof that the attacks on Jews and Israelis “and the demand by their attackers they present passports to prove their identity, were reminiscent of dark periods in history. He stressed that Israel could not accept the persecution of Jews and Israelis on European soil.”
Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema said that the Netherlands’ counterterror watchdog had reported before the match there was no “concrete threat” to Israeli fans, and the match wasn’t considered a high risk.
Even so, Amsterdam authorities banned a pro-Palestinian demonstration outside the Johan Cruyff Arena where Thursday night’s match was played. Video also showed a large crowd of Israeli fans chanting anti-Arab slogans on their way to the game. Afterward, youths on scooters and on foot went in search of Israeli fans, punching and kicking them and then fleeing quickly to evade hundreds of police officers deployed around the city, Halsema said.
Schoof returned early from a European Union summit in Hungary and met Friday night with representatives of the Jewish community in the Netherlands.
“It was a compelling conversation about the sadness and uncertainty experienced in the Jewish community. Every day they experience the consequences of growing antisemitism in the Netherlands,” Schoof said on X.
A ban on demonstrations was in place throughout Amsterdam over the weekend, and security was beefed up at Jewish sites in the city, which has a large Jewish community and was home to Jewish World War II diarist Anne Frank and her family as they hid from Nazi occupiers.
 

KYIV: Russia is open to hearing President-elect Donald Trump’s proposals on ending the war, an official said, as a Russian drone killed one person and wounded 13 in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa and the European Union foreign policy chief held talks in Kyiv after the change in US leadership.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow and Washington were “exchanging signals” on Ukraine via “closed channels.” He did not specify whether the communication was with the current administration or Trump and members of his incoming administration.
Russia is ready to listen to Trump’s proposals on Ukraine provided these were “ideas on how to move forward in the area of settlement, and not in the area of further pumping the Kyiv regime with all kinds of aid,” Ryabkov said Saturday in an interview with Russian state news agency Interfax.
In Kyiv, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha told reporters that Ukraine is ready to work with the Trump administration.
“Remember that President (Volodymyr) Zelensky was one of the first world leaders ... to greet President Trump,” he said. “It was a sincere conversation (and) an exchange of thoughts regarding further cooperation.”
“Also during the telephone conversation, further steps to establish communication between teams were discussed and this work has also begun. Therefore, we are open for further cooperation and I’m sure that a unified goal of reaching just peace unites all of us,” Sybiha said.
Sybiha appeared alongside EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who said his visit is meant to stress the European Union’s support to Ukraine.
“This support remains unwavering. This support is absolutely needed, for you to continue defending yourself against Russian aggression,” he said.
Borrell urged “faster deliveries and fewer self imposed red lines” in getting Western weapons to Ukraine. He had appealed to allies in August to lift restrictions on Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike Russian military targets.
In Odesa, regional Gov. Oleh Kiper said high-rise residential buildings, private houses and warehouses in the Black Sea port city were damaged overnight by the “fall” of a drone. He did not specify whether the drone had been shot down by air defenses.
A further 32 Russian drones were shot down over 10 Ukrainian regions, while 18 were “lost,” according to Ukraine’s air force, likely having been electronically jammed.
A Russian aerial bomb struck a busy highway overnight in the northeastern Kharkiv province, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekohov said. No casualties were reported.
Russia is mounting an intensified aerial campaign that Ukrainian officials say they need more Western help to counter. However, doubts are deepening over what Kyiv can expect from a new US administration. Trump has repeatedly taken issue with US aid to Ukraine, made vague vows to end the war and has praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said 50 Ukrainian drones were destroyed over seven Russian regions — more than half over the Bryansk region, bordering Ukraine.