Government, including far-right leader Geert Wilders, announces it will abandon key green policies in strategy

The Netherlands’ new right-wing coalition government aims to reintroduce daytime speeds of 80mph on motorways as part of a number of proposed changes to the country’s environmental policies which have sparked concern.

The move echoes the anti-green stance of other right-wing parties across the continent, as environmental issues become popular bogeymen for populist politicians. In Germany, for example, heat pumps have been politicised, as members of the far-right party AfD have called the Green party “our enemies’.

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© Photograph: Sem van der Wal/ANP/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Sem van der Wal/ANP/AFP/Getty Images

Zoraya ter Beek, who has chronic depression, anxiety, trauma and unspecified personality disorder, expected to end her life soon

• Europe’s slowly shifting attitudes towards assisted dying

A 29-year-old Dutch woman who has been granted her request for assisted dying on the grounds of unbearable mental suffering is expected to end her life in the coming weeks, fuelling a debate across Europe over the issue.

Zoraya ter Beek received the final approval last week for assisted dying after a three and a half year process under a law passed in the Netherlands in 2002.

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© Photograph: Ilvy Njiokiktjien

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© Photograph: Ilvy Njiokiktjien

Five European countries have recently restricted hormone treatments for adolescents with gender distress. They have not banned the care, unlike many U.S. states.

© Tori Ferenc for The New York Times