Dutch ministers trying to stop tech firm ASML moving abroad over foreign labour fears

Prime minister will reportedly meet CEO of semiconductor equipment maker ASML, which has warned against anti-migrant stance

The Dutch government is scrambling to ensure that the country’s largest company, the semiconductor equipment maker ASML, does not move operations or expand abroad after the tech firm voiced concerns over the country’s hardening stance on migrants.

On Wednesday, the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf reported that the Dutch government had launched a cross-ministry effort, dubbed “Operation Beethoven”, to encourage ASML to continue to invest in the country.

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Politicians from 12 countries unite to press for arms ban on Israel

Letter aims to bring public anger over 30,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza into heart of parliaments

More than 200 MPs from 12 countries have committed themselves to trying to persuade their governments to impose a ban on arms sales to Israel, arguing they will not be complicit in “Israel’s grave violation of international law” in its assault on Gaza.

The letter, organised by Progressive International, a network of socialist MPs and activists focused on international justice, is seen as the best practical measure possible to bring public anger over the 30,000 deaths of Palestinians in Gaza into the heart of parliaments, where calls for an immediate unconditional ceasefire have so far fallen on deaf ears or been rejected by national governments.

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UK a ‘tax haven’ for polluting SUVs, says green thinktank

First-year vehicle excise duty is a fraction of that in countries such as France and the Netherlands

Low taxation on petrol SUVs in the UK compared with much of Europe is inviting a glut of large, polluting luxury cars, according to an analysis by a green thinktank.

The tax paid when buying a new petrol or diesel SUV in the UK is only a fraction of the levies in neighbouring countries, including France and the Netherlands, and lower than many others in Europe, making it a “tax haven” for the bigger, less environmentally friendly vehicles, the report from Transport & Environment (T&E) found.

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Dutch cargo bike firm Babboe ordered to halt sales amid safety concerns

Regulator demands recall of two models, understood to affect about 10,000 of the popular products

Dutch authorities have ordered a leading European manufacturer of cargo bikes to suspend sales and recall thousands of its products amid safety concerns over frame breakages.

The Dutch regulator for food and consumer product safety (NVWA) called a temporary halt to trading by Babboe, which makes family cargo bikes seen daily on school runs from Berlin to Bristol, “because their safety cannot be sufficiently guaranteed”.

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Rotterdam mayor calls for end to lax stance on middle-class drug use

Europe has been ‘negligent,’ as an acceptance of cocaine and cannabis leads to corruption, violence, and misery, says Aboutaleb

The mayor of a city on the frontline of the illegal drug trade has said that a “negligent” attitude to recreational drug use, including an acceptance of cocaine as the middle-class narcotic of choice, has led to violence and corruption in Europe’s poorest neighbourhoods.

As the Netherlands digests three life sentences handed out in the criminal trial of drug baron Ridouan Taghi and his “well-oiled murder machine” gang, Ahmed Aboutaleb, mayor of Rotterdam, has demanded authorities take a tougher line on cocaine use.

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Dutch gallery boss appeals for return of stolen Frans Hals painting

Rijksmuseum director general makes plea for artwork taken from Leerdam in August 2020 before new exhibition in Amsterdam

The director general of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam has appealed for the return of a stolen Frans Hals painting as he prepares to open a major exhibition devoted to the Dutch master without the “amazing” €15m artwork.

Two Laughing Boys With a Mug of Beer was stolen from the Museum Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden in the Dutch town of Leerdam in August 2020. Unlike a Van Gogh painting believed to have been taken by the same gang and recovered last year, the Hals appears to have vanished into the criminal world.

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Geert Wilders’ hopes of becoming Dutch PM dim after centrist party quits talks

NSC’s Pieter Omtzigt said to be shocked by public finances as he abandons talks to form coalition under far-right leader

Geert Wilders’ chances of forming a majority government in the Netherlands have been dealt a heavy blow after one of the far-right leader’s three potential partners abruptly withdrew from coalition talks citing concerns over public finances.

Wilders, whose Freedom party (PVV) shocked Europe by finishing first in elections last November, said on X he was “unbelievably disappointed” by the decision of New Social Contract (NSC) to declare it was “finished” with the current round of talks.

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Farmers face ‘lasagne of different measures’, Belgian leader says after protests block border crossings – as it happened

Prime minister says blockades by protesting farmers at Dutch-Belgian border ‘have been stopped’

Belgian prime minister Alexander De Croo arrived in Place du Luxembourg just as a bronze statue that was felled in the protests yesterday was being taken away.

The statue, which weighed 200kg, was taken into a van by half a dozen men, as the clean-up in the square continues.

I think, by now, all governments have basically seen them, the Flemish government, the federal government – yesterday also the president of the [European] Commission.

We’ve shown that we’re able to come up with steps in the right direction. For some measures, we need more time to elaborate. And there’s a real willingness to go forward.

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Bangladesh launches investigation into children ‘wrongly’ adopted overseas

Police start to interview witnesses following Guardian reports on adoptions to the Netherlands nearly 50 years ago

Read more: ‘I was told I could visit. Then she went missing’: the Bangladeshi mothers who say their children were adopted without consent

Police in Bangladesh have launched an investigation into historical allegations that children were adopted abroad without their parents’ consent, after a Guardian investigation into adoptions to the Netherlands in the 1970s.

Bangladesh special branch in Dhaka confirmed it had opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the adoption of a number of children between 1976 and 1979.

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Social enterprise offers young people paid opportunity to protect UK oceans

Sea Ranger Service will offer the chance to carry out maintenance work and climate research on sailing vessels

A social enterprise has launched offering people between the ages of 18 and 29 the chance to protect the seas around the UK while getting paid.

The Sea Ranger Service (SRS) will offer young people the chance to sail out to sea and undertake vital work to conserve Britain’s oceans.

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Why Europe’s farmers are protesting – and the far right is taking note

For some farmers already struggling, paying for more of their pollution is a step too far. Germany is the latest country to see anger boil over

The columns of tractors that have blocked roads in Germany, causing chaos in cities and headaches for commuters, are the latest wave in a growing tide of anger against efforts to protect Europe’s nature from the pollution pumped out by its farms.

In recent years, farmers in western Europe have fought with increasing ferocity against policies to protect the planet that they say cost too much. In the Netherlands, where the backlash has been strongest, a court ruling on nitrogen emissions in 2019 triggered furious and recurring protests over government efforts to close farms and cut the number of animals on them. In Belgium, similar fights led to convoys of tractors clogging the EU quarter of Brussels in March last year. In Ireland, which has seen smaller protests, dairy farmers angry at nitrogen restrictions marched with their cows to the offices of three government ministers last month.

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Four arrested in Europe over alleged cross-border Hamas terrorism plot

Three held in Germany and one in Netherlands over plans for possible attacks on Jewish institutions, prosecutor says

Four people have been arrested in Germany and the Netherlands on suspicion of being part of a cross-border Hamas terror plot that German prosecutors said aimed to obtain weapons to target Jewish institutions in Europe.

Three others were arrested in Denmark on separate terrorism offences, and the country’s politicians indicated they were also Hamas related, while the prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said the threat was “as serious as it gets”.

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Boris Johnson considered ‘raid’ on vaccine plant in the Netherlands

Covid inquiry expected to be told former PM was open to ‘military options’ to obtain ‘impounded’ jabs from factory in Leiden

Boris Johnson’s appearance before the Covid-19 inquiry is not until Wednesday but it is already making headlines in the Netherlands amid a mixture of amusement and alarm at claims he asked for British spies to plan a “raid” on a Dutch vaccine plant.

The operation – according to sources who briefed Johnson’s employer, the Daily Mail – would have taken place against the backdrop of a tit-for-tat row in March 2021 between the then prime minister and the EU, which was moving towards restricting exports of vaccines across the Channel.

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‘It was heartbreaking’: Muslim mayor comes to terms with Dutch election result

Ahmed Marcouch, directly targeted by Geert Wilders during his career, grapples with how best to heal country’s wounds

Soon after news broke that the populist Geert Wilders and his anti-Islam Party for Freedom (PVV) had won the most votes of any party in the Dutch elections, Ahmed Marcouch found himself comforting his distraught eight-year-old.

Earlier in the day, a teacher at his son’s school had explained the election results, discussing the wide differences between parties. Now Marcouch’s son was terrified that the family would have to leave the country.

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Demand soars for Dutch first editions of book naming UK royals in race row

Copies of book about British monarchy changing hands on resale websites for up to €175

Dutch first editions of the book Endgame, which names two members of the British royal family alleged to have discussed the skin colour of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s unborn baby, are selling online for many times above the original retail price of €22.99.

As parts of the British press reached fever pitch trying to find out whether the Dutch version had contained a mistranslation, or had failed to adopt final excisions or was running a strange publicity stunt, bids for a Dutch version on Marktplaats on Thursday reached €175 (£150).

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Nine men to be tried for murder of Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries

Hearing to start in January in case of journalist shot in the street in 2021 who was adviser to a witness in trial of a Dutch drug baron

Nine men suspected of the murder of prominent Dutch crime reporter Peter R de Vries will go on trial in January, a Dutch court has announced, with a verdict expected by the summer.

De Vries was gunned down on a busy Amsterdam street on 6 July 2021, shortly after leaving a TV studio where he had appeared as a guest on a programme.

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Finland to close border with Russia for two weeks, prime minister announces – as it happened

Finnish PM Petteri Orpo says border crossing will close from Thursday as Finland accuses Russia of orchestrating arrival of people from third countries. This live blog is now closed

The foreign ministers of the Baltic states have decided not to attend the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) ministerial council in Skopje, the three politician said in a statement today.

We have also seen nothing but Russia’s obstructive behavior within the OSCE itself – first, by blocking any OSCE presence and activities in Ukraine, then by blocking Estonia’s 2024 chairmanship on completely fabricated reasons and now by blocking constructive solutions for keeping the organization alive and functional.

We deeply regret the decision enabling the personal participation of Russian Foreign Minister S. Lavrov at the 30th Session of the OSCE Ministerial Council in Skopje. It will only provide Russia with yet another propaganda opportunity.

Nato needs a proven consensus-builder. We are going to have 32 countries, keeping 32 countries together on any topic is a big challenge, and we need a consensus-builder that can work with any and all allies to move everyone forward in the same direction.

Second, I think it’s important that the next secretary general would come from a country … that has a proven track record of investing in his or her own military spending, so investing the 2% of GDP or above. I think that’s important as a clear signal to all allies that this really is important to us.

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Geert Wilders wants former minister as new ‘scout’, reports say, after first one resigns over fraud claims – as it happened

Gom van Strien’s planned talks with party leaders have been cancelled after he stepped down. This live blog is closed

Irish police are expected to make sweeping arrests of suspected ringleaders of Thursday’s riot in Dublin and to obtain wider rights to use facial recognition technology to help identify suspects in any future disorder.

The moves come amid mounting pressure on the government and police chiefs over the violence on 24 November when an estimated 500 anti-immigrant activists and gangs of young people looted shops, burned vehicles and attacked officers, leaving swathes of Ireland’s capital resembling a war zone.

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Geert Wilders: effort to form Netherlands coalition not off to ‘dream start’

Blow to far-right leader as man chosen to oversee coalition talks quits over fraud claims

The far-right Dutch politician Geert Wilders has admitted that he was not off to a “dream start” in his attempts to form a government, after a man he appointed to oversee coalition talks quit over fraud allegations before getting started in the role.

Wilders and his Party for Freedom (PVV) look to have won almost a quarter of seats in the 150-seat Dutch parliament in last Wednesday’s elections, about 10 seats more than predicted.

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Success of Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV raises fears for Dutch climate policies

The party has a hostile stance on attempts to cut carbon emissions but got more votes than any other in general election

The shocking success of Geert Wilders’ far-right PVV party in Dutch elections has left climate activists fearful of a drastic shift to fossil fuels and a rollback of climate policies if it manages to form a government.

Best known abroad for its rhetoric against Muslims, the PVV, which came first in Wednesday’s election but may struggle to find coalition partners, has taken a hard line on policies to stop the planet getting hotter.

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