The next leader of the Netherlands will break barriers in several ways. Rob Jetten, the head of the center-left Democrats 66 Party, is virtually certain to become the country’s next prime minister after his party won one of the closest elections in Dutch history. The Netherlands’ youngest and first openly gay prime minister will look to carry D66’s electoral victory toward setting a new political agenda.

A young politician
Jetten, 38, was born in the Dutch town of Veghel in the country’s south. He obtained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in public administration at the Netherlands’ Radboud University. He first became interested in politics after a “Turkish primary school was set on fire in my hometown,” Jetten said in his profile for the Dutch House of Representatives.

He worked as a “manager at the ProRail national track network before going into politics,” said The Guardian. He was first elected to the House in 2017 and has held several government positions, including minister for climate and energy policy and first deputy prime minister.

Next in line
As the leader of D66, Jetten is expected to become the next prime minister, as D66 defeated the far-right Party for Freedom and its leader, Geert Wilders. The contest was a “nail-biter,” and the difference in the election “came down to postal votes from Dutch citizens living abroad,” said The Associated Press. 

Immigration has been a sticking point of the last few Dutch elections, and to “combat illegal immigration and discourage dangerous migrant journeys, Jetten has proposed asylum applications to the Netherlands be submitted from outside the EU,” said Reuters. He has also promoted ways to address the Netherlands’ housing shortage and has “suggested cutting red tape to enable the construction of 100,000 new homes.” 

But first a government has to be formed. This may not be easy because the “fragmented nature of Dutch politics means no party wins enough seats in the 150-member parliament to form an absolute majority,” said France24. Upcoming talks to form a coalition are “expected to be lengthy and arduous.”

As perhaps the most publicly religious member of the second Trump administration, Vice President JD Vance has long been an emissary between this White House and the right-wing Christian communities that form a core pillar of the MAGA tent. But Vance’s recent comments about his wife Usha’s faith and upbringing in an Indian Hindu home have drawn intense criticism from multiple religious communities, even as the vice president himself doubles down on hopes that the second lady might someday fully embrace his Christianity.

What did Vance say?
Appearing at a Turning Point USA event at the University of Mississippi last week, Vance was asked a question about “raising three children in an interfaith marriage” with his wife and why conservatives have framed Christianity as a “prerequisite for being considered a patriotic American,” said The Washington Post. “Do I hope eventually that she’s somehow moved by the same thing that I was moved by in church?” said Vance. “Yeah, I honestly do wish that because I believe in the Christian Gospel, and I hope eventually my wife comes to see it the same way.”

Several days later, Vance expanded on his comments on X in response to the allegation made by conservative Canadian media personality Ezra Levant that Vance had thrown his wife “under the bus.” The second lady “is not a Christian and has no plans to convert,” said Vance.

What is he being criticized for?
Vance’s comments were “basically saying that my wife, this aspect of her, is just not enough,” said Hindu American Foundation Executive Director Suhag Shukla to The New York Times. At times, Vance has “postured himself as a kind of theologian in chief,” using his own interpretation of Christianity to “justify the Trump administration’s policies through a religious lens,” said the Post.

The public framing offered by the vice president about his wife’s relationship with Christianity “should give every American, especially those in interfaith families, pause,” said Religion News Service. Vance’s comments are not only a “private conviction” being “amplified through the power of public office” but also a “public reminder that only one faith is really American” for the millions of non-Christians in the country. 

Hindu devotees sit together at a temple in Dhaka, Bangladesh, to pray to Lokenath Brahmachari, a Hindu saint and philosopher. During the annual Rakher Upobash festival, worshippers light thousands of oil lamps.
Mohammad Ponir Hossain / Reuters

Telling your personal narrative through food is a common cookbook trope. Taking an anthropological wander through a people’s food culture is another prevailing cookbook methodology. Niloufer Ichaporia King merges the two, swiveling a mirror to look at both herself and her ancestral background, in the 2007 masterpiece, “My Bombay Kitchen: Traditional and Modern Parsi Home Cooking.”

Parsis and global cooking
King tells the story of the Parsis, a group of Persians who practiced Zoroastrianism thousands of years ago and were persecuted after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Persia. When the Parsis fled, many landed on the western coast of what is now India.

King’s family members established themselves in Bombay, merging their Persian cooking with Indian influences. The resulting food featured an “immense range of tastes and techniques,” King writes, a real “magpie cuisine.”

King later moved to Berkeley, California, acquiring more culinary influences as she worked on a doctorate in anthropology. In time, she connected with the food-world rabble-rousers at Chez Panisse restaurant, eventually spearheading an annual Nowruz (Persian New Year) dinner.

Innovation in the kitchen
“My Bombay Kitchen” compiles recipes that flaunt a fresh, innovative cooking style. King’s Parsiburgers, for example, are a breezy take on kebabs, with your choice of ground meat seasoned with chopped yellow or green onions, ginger, fresh green chiles, cilantro and mint. You shape them into patties, sizzle in a skillet and serve however you like. This is how King cooks, with the spirit of Persia and the Indian subcontinent on the wings of California’s freewheeling individuality.