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Writer Olivia Sheed attended WorldPride Amsterdam just a week after Berlin Pride where a van drove into the crowd and hit several people

It had been a long day, but a good day. I was about to go to bed after a busy day celebrating Newcastle Pride, when I saw the news alert about the attack at Berlin Pride.

Just hours ago, I’d marched with my partner in my city and felt the joy the day brought with it. That joy was shattered when I heard the news that one person had died and 29 more were injured in a car ramming attack and subsequent stabbings.

I couldn’t quite believe it when I first read it, the terror the attendees must have felt, a day of celebration ruined by a cowardly act of violence, how to reconcile with what this could mean for Pride celebrations in years to come. Would they be scaled back to allow for increased security? Would people feel afraid to attend them in future? Would I feel fear the next time I went to Pride?

I asked myself these questions ahead of my upcoming visit to Amsterdam, where one week on from Berlin Pride, I’d be sitting along the canals of a major European city for World Pride and the famous canal parade. The Dutch city was chosen by Pride organisers to host this year’s WorldPride, as it marks 25 years since it hosted the world’s first legally recognised same-sex marriage.

However, given what had just happened in Berlin, I was aware that police and security in the city would be on high alert for another attack happening so soon after the last. This was corroborated by Mayor Femke Halsema, who said Amsterdam would take unspecified extra measures following the Berlin attack.

Despite the concerns I had, the opportunity to cover such a large event, with hundreds of thousands of people flocking to the city for the WorldPride celebration throughout July and August, was one I was so excited about. I still felt a giddy anticipation as I made my way there, but I felt a cloud hanging over me as I made my way through the streets of Amsterdam, despite the assurances of additional security.

However, if there was tension among other World Pride attendees, they didn’t let themselves show it. In the lead-up to the canal parade, people went about their lives in the city. Some partied, some enjoyed the quiet canal living can afford, and some just did their best to make the weeks of World Pride the best they could.

There was a special kind of atmosphere in the city that was different from other times I’d visited. Pride flags adorned every street you walked down, with the entire city lit in rainbow colours to welcome people from across the globe for one of the world’s largest Pride celebrations.

The flags were outside (and inside) businesses, apartments, public buildings – everywhere you looked you’d struggle to avoid a shock of rainbow. 50 major buildings arranged to light up in rainbow colours at night to literally light up the city once the sun set.

As Reform councils across the UK fight as hard as they can to get Pride flags off of public buildings, including the house of the first modern lesbian Anne Lister in West Yorkshire, it was dizzying in the best of ways seeing so many up in the streets. Each one felt like a welcome, a statement of defiance, and a call to celebrate all at once.

This continued to the day of the canal parade, where the increased security was met with open arms by participants. Police boats would make their way up and down the canals as the clock ticked down to the first floats reaching our viewing area, patrolling but still waving to the crowd as they settled into their respective seats.

Then, as the first floats began to make their way down our stretch of canal, I felt the weight that had been on my shoulders for the days leading up to the event ease. I had been so worried about something bad happening that I’d forgotten what being at Pride was meant to be.

Pride started as a protest, and for many, it still is. In a world where many people keep telling us that we can be queer if we don’t shove it in their face, where some don’t like queer people because we’re perceived as “different”, to a few who believe our existence should be met with violence, simply dancing in the sunshine is a protest in itself.

And that’s what people did. An estimated 300,000 people danced on the banks of Amsterdam’s famous canals, embraced their partner, and smiled with their friends. A week on from yet another dark day in queer history was met with a bright determination that the attempts to silence would only embolden.

Throughout the day, I could barely remember a time when I wasn’t smiling. The sun was shining, people were celebrating, we felt seen, we felt joy. When people ask what Pride is about, that to me is it. We felt joy, and we were unashamed to feel it.

Just a week after an attack that made waves through the whole LGBTQI+ community, I felt honoured to see how determined people were to show pride, show that we’ve always been here, and always will be.

• Olivia attended WorldPride Amsterdam 2026 with Booking.com and stayed at the Hotel Jakarta Amsterdam.
• Through its Travel Proud programme, Booking.com is helping make inclusive stays easier to find. Travellers can identify LGBTQ+ welcoming stays through the rainbow suitcase badge or ‘Travel Proud (LGBTQ+ friendly)’ filter on Booking.com.

WASHINGTON — Acting Atty. Gen. Todd Blanche said Tuesday that the Trump administration was scrapping plans to create a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate allies of the Republican president after widespread political backlash and setbacks in the courts.

“We are not moving forward with the fund, period,” Blanche said in response to questions at a House hearing on the Justice Department budget.

““Not moving forward, ever?” asked Rep. Grace Meng, a New York Democrat.

The blunt declaration marked an extraordinary turnabout for a Trump Justice Department that just two weeks ago had pronounced the fund as essential to make up for what officials insist was weaponized law enforcement during President Biden’s Democratic administration. Since then, though, the idea has faced mounting pressure from Republicans who demanded reassurances that plans for the fund were off the table before they would move forward with legislation funding President Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies.

Blanche said the Justice Department was not abandoning an element of a settlement with the IRS that gave Trump and his family immunity from tax audits.

The hearing before a House Appropriations subcommittee was scheduled for discussion of the Justice Department’s budget, but lawmakers quickly focused their questioning on the creation of a fund that has provoked outrage over the mere possibility that violent pro-Trump rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, could be eligible for payouts.

Signs for the retreat surfaced Monday when a person familiar with the matter said the Republican president was now reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund established to resolve his lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns. The Justice Department also said Monday it would comply with a Virginia court temporarily blocking the administration’s “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” effectively agreeing to pause the plan for at least two weeks.

Another judge in Florida raised the prospect of reopening the IRS lawsuit because of “grievous allegations” of improper dealing made against the administration by settlement critics.

The Trump administration has defended the fund as an appropriate measure to make up for what officials insist was a weaponized Justice Department during President Joe Biden’s Democratic administration, a claim the Biden administration strongly denied. Though some Trump supporters, including participants in the Capitol riot, have celebrated the announcement, the reaction among Republicans in Congress has been decidedly more hostile, forcing Blanche to try to assuage a GOP constituency that generally operates in close alignment with the administration.

The furor has especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies. Republicans who returned to Washington on Monday said they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on the fund. Many have pushed the administration to impose limits or scrap the idea altogether.

At a Senate budget hearing last month, Blanche refused to rule out the possibility that those who carried out violence on Jan. 6 could be eligible for payouts and has repeatedly said in interviews that anyone who feels persecuted by the criminal justice system is free to apply. Payouts will be decided by a five-member commission appointed by Blanche.

But he has apparently struck a more conciliatory tone in private when confronted by Republican anger.

Blanche encountered a groundswell of opposition last month at a tense private meeting with GOP senators, with more than half raising concerns, including by shouting at the Justice Department’s top official, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas said in a recent episode of his podcast.

“There were fireworks at an epic level — and I’ve got to say, it’s one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate,” Cruz said.

Behind closed doors, Blanche was “adamant” that no one who assaulted police at the Capitol would receive compensation, according to Cruz.

“He said not just ‘no,’ but ‘hell no,’” the senator recalled.

Tucker and Richer write for the Associated Press.