Dutch News

Brabant is the unlikely setting this week for a tale of industrial espionage running from Greece to Moscow via Paris. The national audit office takes time out from infiltrating army bases to deliver a damning verdict on the government's handling of the economy. GDP unexpectedly nosedives after it emerges that bamischijven are disappearing from Friday afternoon works gatherings. Mark Rutte dashes from a summit in Iceland where he made vague promises to send F-16s to Ukraine to a meeting where he vaguely promised to resolve the nitrogen crisis. In a busy week for the courts, a Russian oligarch fails to evict squatters from his Amsterdam mansion while a French author loses his bid to block an "essayistic" adult movie. And Feyenoord win the Eredivisie but lose the distinction of having the worst hooligans in the Netherlands to troubled FC Groningen.

Rotterdam's runaway vulture is bound for a Mediterranean island retreat after startling the owner of a house in Leipzig by turning up beside his pond. Closer to home, GroenLinks and BBB have mixed results as they try to form provincial administrations. Interpol launches an appeal to try to identify 22 women murdered across three countries in the last 50 years. Housing minister Hugo de Jonge struggles to get his plan to build 37,500 container homes off the ground. Feyenoord are on the brink of winning the Eredivisie for the first time in six years, while Max Verstappen continues his juggernaut-like pursuit of a third Formula 1 title.

On the day when the Dutch commemorate their war dead, the president of Ukraine jetted in to give a sobering reminder that wars are not just for the history books. Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited the ICC, the Senate, the Catshuis and a royal palace in a whirlwind tour that covered more ground than the Russian army managed in six months in Bakhmut. Dodenherdenking also featured a moving speech by a teenage girl about the Sinti victims of the Holocaust, a bugle-hating cat and yet another ophef-inducing tweet by Caroline van der Plas. PSV won the Dutch cup final in a forgettable match that culminated in a woeful penalty shoot-out. And DutchNews has a wartime exclusive of its own – tune in to find out more, as well as what to do if you have any wartime documents gathering dust in the attic. You can find out more about the campaign to donate war memorabilia and details of participating museums at https://www.actienietweggooien.nl

Prime Minister Mark Rutte once again apologised to the people of Groningen for how they have been treated by the government in the past decades and pledged 22.5 billion of investments in the province’s infrastructure, public facilities and healthcare to compensate for the physical and mental damages caused by gas extraction induced earthquakes. Climate minister Rob Jetten announced the cabinet’s 30 billion euro plans to tackle climate change, while an extra 2 billion is invested to solve the asylum and migration crisis to avoid a repeat of last summer when hundreds of asylum seekers had to sleep in tents due to a shortage of accommodations. After a very expensive week, Finance minister Sigrid Kaag warned that the government is reaching the end of its deep pockets. Luckily, she found a typical Dutch kitchen tool at one of the King’s Day freemarkets that’s perfect for bringing the budget back on track. In other news, criminal lawyer Inez Weski was arrested after she allegedly helped her client Ridoughan Taghi c

The government's woes keep piling up as squatting badgers throw a spanner into the works of their efforts to house refugees. Talks with farmers' groups on nitrogen reduction are on the verge of breaking down while the government grapples with conflicting demands from opposition parties. Travellers are warned to face another summer of misery at Schiphol. The MIVD foils a Russian spy vessel posing as a fishing boat, possibly after the crew make a misguided attempt to blend in by drinking Russian-bottled Heineken. Rabobank says young families are fleeing Amsterdam for cheaper homes in the provinces. Ajax go viral by hanging a virtual poster on the wall of a fictional British pub from an American TV series. And a hotel chain threatens to sue Amsterdam city council over the location of its multi-storey 'erotic centre'. Buy your nun-alcoholic wine here: https://www.omroepbrabant.nl/nieuws/4264040/nonnen-zitten-met-64000-flessen-wijn-in-hun-maag-het-was-te-zonnig

French president Emmanuel Macron was confronted by protests and tough questions on his relations with China on his state visit to The Hague, but the Dutch language turned out to be his biggest adversary. Farmers' party BBB looks set to shut out D66 from provincial government as tensions grow in the coalition on its nitrogen policy. Schiphol airport presses on with plans to cut the number of flights even after a court rules it doesn't have to. And we have a menagerie of animal stories, from runaway meerkats and pole-squatting storks to the untimely demise of a gorilla who became a household name.

A carousel of rubbish this week as Amsterdam imports 900 tonnes of waste from Rome while launching a campaign to keep out trashed British tourists. Mark Rutte promises to listen better to voters as he tries to save his government from the scrapheap, while Wopke Hoekstra tries to salvage his credibility by finding common ground with BBB leader Caroline van der Plas. Sex workers protest against being dumped in an out-of-town 'erotic centre' as the city council tries to clean up the red light district. French writer Michel Houellebecq fails to get his accidental porn film canned by the courts. Oranje are dumped on by the French in football and sent packing by Zimbabwe in cricket. And Greenpeace steps up its campaign against the high-flying, high-polluting super rich and their private jets. Stay Away campaign: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Be9yFONsMow

The polder system is being hollowed out and threatens to go off the rails at any moment. Yes, those pesky badgers have been building their setts under railway lines and forced NS to cancel some trains. Meanwhile, the Christian Democrats lick their wounds at a corporate hotel near Utrecht as the coalition parties continue to reel from the aftershocks of the BBB's electoral coup. Feyenoord and the Dutch cricket team reassure the CDA that even the worst losing streaks come to an end eventually. Russia fires a broadside at the ICC while China threatens to serve up an extra hot portion of patatje oorlog if ASML stops supplying Dutch chips. And has an orange chicken curry put paid to the football team's chances of a famous win in Paris?

We digest the results of a bombshell election that turned the Senate, the provincial houses and the water boards upside down and the flags the right way up. Are the nitrogen reduction plans in disarray? Who will the BoerBurgerBeweging team up with in the provinces? And can Mark Rutte live to fight another round on Vandaag Inside? The war in Ukraine and the pandemic turn out to be good news for the environment. Unemployment remains low but wages aren't keeping up with the price of tomatoes. And in football, two Dutch teams are still in the hunt for Europe's lesser prizes.

This week we do our best to explain how next week's elections work (shout out to the water boards!), why the TV debates are between politicians who aren't standing in them and why Mark Rutte is shadow boxing with a 'leftist cloud'. Justice minister Dilan Yesilgöz is under pressure over failures in the crown witness protection system. The European Medicines Agency is displeased about the personal treatments Amsterdam city council plans to offer in its neighbourhood. In sport, there's good news in athletics, football, skating, cycling and baseball. And we report on the exotic invaders who are accused of tearing up the neighbourhood, holding raucous parties and driving up your energy bill.

The systematic failure to protect Groningen residents from earthquakes and witnesses in gangland trials from being murdered in broad daylight were laid bare in two damning reports this week. We unearth the village scandal behind a portrait painted by Vincent van Gogh shortly before he left his native Brabant. Inflation rises again as the official statistics agency discovers it overcooked the figures last year. An amateur football team threatens to create an almighty headache for the KNVB after causing a cup upset. And we have an outstanding story about two plants of eye-watering proportions that will swell visitor numbers at Leiden University's botanical garden.

Unfortunately there is no regular episode this week because in a freakish coincidence the entire DutchNews podcast team is away and we promise this has nothing to do with the ten Russian spies who were expelled from the Netherlands on Tuesday. As a compensation, we release last summer's special episode for Patreon supporters in which we don't discuss the news, but rather a number of fascinating stories from Dutch history and several of them are remarkably related to current affairs. So if you want to know what a high-ranking German refugee, a giant Russian with a taste for torture, a hungry mob who literally grilled their prime minister and an art forger who conned the Nazis have in common? Spoiler: they all feature in our special summer podcast for DutchNews patrons, now available for everyone. But if you do want to support the DutchNews podcast, go to www.patreon.com/DutchNewsNL and make sure we will return next week with a regular episode!

After relying on the Netherlands to help them beat the taxman, U2 appropriately hire a Dutchman to beat the drums for them in Las Vegas. There's more smashing news on the tennis court, where two home-based players reach the quarter-finals of the ABN AMRO tournament. The VVD wins the race to become the first party to pull out of an election debate this year as Mark Rutte's strategy unravels. Celebrities staff the phone lines to drive up donations to the Giro 555 earthquake appeal. A councillor wins a five-year legal battle to stop racial profiling by border guards. And campaigners ask the king to honour a diplomat who was reprimanded for breaking visa rules to save thousands of Jews from the Holocaust.

Dutch rescue workers join the international team searching the rubble of this week's earthquake in Turkey and Syria for survivors. Back home, Mark Rutte surveys the wreckage of his asylum policy as the Council of State throws out a rule delaying family reunions. The team investigating the MH17 disaster say the chain of command went all the way up to Vladimir Putin. We ask if Dutch cheese and Belgian roads explain the Benelux hegemony in cyclo-cross. And we reveal why thousands of museum goers will miss the most famous girl in The Hague when she pays a rare visit to Amsterdam. The episode on the collapse of Forum voor Democratie was in week 48 of 2020 called "The Forum Voor Democrazy Edition" and the segment starts at 17:20.

The distant goal of putting Russia on trial for invading Ukraine moves a step closer as a dedicated prosecutor's office is set up in The Hague. Mark Rutte avoids a diplomatic incident as he takes French president Emmanuel Macron out to an Indonesian restaurant. The Dutch and German armies look set to integrate further, though there's bound to be a row about who owns the bicycles. Questions are asked in parliament about the right to protest after hundreds of people are arrested for demonstrating on a motorway. And we reveal which birds rule the roost in Dutch gardens.

A feast of ophef this week as the widow of singer André Hazes sues a juice channel presenter who called her a 'gecremeerd kroket' while Belgium's prime minister gets his flags in a twist. Richard de Mos rolls up in a garish stretch limousine for the start of his trial, where he's accused of running a criminal network in the heart of The Hague. The government promises to send more tanks and weapons to Ukraine as soon as it can sort out the lease contract with Germany. Amsterdam unveils its giant bike shed at Centraal Station to global acclaim and grumbles from cargo bike owners. Dutch citizens turn out to have turned up more than 1,000 Bronze Age burial mounds during lockdown. And Ajax sack Alfred Schreuder after running aground against the plucky fishermen of Volendam. Amsterdam bike shed time lapse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEnJORukyBw Upside down flag: https://twitter.com/alexanderdecroo/status/1617874616730673159 Prinsenvlag apology: https://twitter.com/alexanderdecroo/status/1618209869995315208

Mark Rutte went to Washington this week and said the Netherlands would definitely send some weapons to Ukraine at an unspecified time in the near future. Mayors in three cities suggested digital banning orders to curb gang violence, even though they don't know what they are, how they'd work or whether they're even legal. Good news on the energy front as gas prices start to come down and Geert Wilders becomes the unlikely saviour of solar panel subsidies. The Rijksmuseum extends its opening hours after tickets for its Vermeer show sell faster than hot kroketten. And Griekspoor's Australian dream ends in a Greek tragedy following his victory in the battle of the clones. Rijksmuseum Vermeer website: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/nl/johannes-vermeer

2023 gets off to a shaky start with Gert-Jan Segers stepping down as leader of the ChristenUnie party. The cabinet's plans to control immigration come unstuck in court, forcing asylum minister Eric van der Burg to kick the latest measures into the long grass. The looming recession has puts a dampener on the housing market as prices decline after nine years. One commodity that's apparently impervious to high inflation is cocaine, but Rotterdam has been eclipsed by Antwerp as Europe's largest drug smuggling port. A museum in Brabant claims a timely scoop from 70 million years ago. And last but not least, we unveil the prestigious winner of the democratically sound vote for the 2022 Ophef of the Year. PostNL instructions: https://www.postnl.nl/en/receiving/parcels/receiving-from-abroad/

It's that time of year when we look back over those fleeting flare-ups of outrage and opprobrium that feature in the Ophef of the Week slot. Relive obscure controversies such as the celebrity who took her own mob to the supermarket. Recall the overpriced phone booths in the ministry of horrors. Do you remember which Belgian club was condemned for appointing an over-exposed former football director? And what about the psychedelic fury sparked by Gelderland's plans to go paintballing with wolves? So pull up a chair, grab an oliebol and a glass of bessenjenever, listen to the ophefs and select your favourite from our shortlist of three … no, four … no: six! Watch the Jumbo World Cup commercial: https://twitter.com/ottovdgalien/status/1587748502129582082?s=20&t=v3F4Rwqv89JIKYbIg9k8_Q Vote here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1wXLxDdUCRckp9NU52nUhxHbxNYklduyf9oTUdrR_EAI/edit

Sigrid Kaag is dispatched to Paramaribo as the cabinet's efforts to apologise for the Dutch slave trade fly into a whirlwind of recriminations. Back home, Wopke Hoekstra is shocked – shocked! – by a report exposing institutional racism at the foreign affairs ministry. Dutch Moroccan footballers, meanwhile, have no regrets as they eclipse Louis van Gaal's Oranje at the World Cup. Gas supplies look set to last the winter but you'll need to hire a Chern medal-winning mathematician to work out your bill. And after the disappointment of Qatar, Barney and his fellow darts players sharpen their arrows for the world championships at Ally Pally.