Political rancour fails to dampen the Eurovision song contest final in Tel Aviv
Europe’s annual musical jamboree culminated in triumph for the Netherlands on Saturday night.
In one of the closest competitions in recent years, the battle for top spot in the Eurovision song contest was a tight fight between Sweden, the Netherlands, Italy and North Macedonia.
Continue reading...Johan van Oldenbarnevelt chronicled final months before he was beheaded on 13 May 1619
Johan van Oldenbarnevelt is arguably the greatest Dutch statesman, as one of the founding fathers who helped liberate the Netherlands from Spanish rule, but for 200 years the whereabouts of a diary chronicling his final months before he was beheaded has been a mystery.
The prose – written over an eight-month period between 1618 and 1619 – was last seen in 1825 when a pastor, the Rev Adrian Stolker, studied the manuscript and made a copy by hand to be published for wider dissemination.
Continue reading...Each of the 104 pages in Nicolaes Tulp’s book of tulips contains a watercolour painted by the artist Jacob Marrel, with a record of the market values of the bulbs at the height of 17th-century tulip mania, the world’s first speculation bubble.
The catalogue bears testament to a period in the 1630s when the Netherlands was the richest country in the world and single tulip bulbs would sell for more than 10 times the annual income of a skilled worker. However, the market crashed dramatically in 1637.
Continue reading...Ports of Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ghent to pipe greenhouse gas into vast under-sea cavities
Three of the largest ports in Europe – Rotterdam, Antwerp and Ghent – are to be used to capture and bury 10m tonnes of CO2 emissions under the North Sea in what will be the biggest project of its kind in the world.
The ports, which account for one-third of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg region, would be used to pipe the gas into a porous reservoir of sandstone about two miles (3km) below the seabed.
Continue reading...Diesel cars older than 15 years will be barred next year as first part of anti-pollution drive
Cars and motorbikes running on petrol or diesel will be banned from driving in Amsterdam from 2030.
The city’s council plans to phase in the change as part of a drive to clean up air pollution, which the authorities blame for shortening the life expectancy of Amsterdammers by a year.
Continue reading...Judges order oil firm to release confidential documents as wives of late Nigerian activists get go-ahead to pursue claim
A Dutch court has ruled that it has jurisdiction to determine whether Royal Dutch Shell was complicit in the Nigerian government’s execution of the Ogoni Nine, environmental protesters who fought against widespread pollution in the Niger Delta.
In a 50-page ruling hailed by campaigners as an “important precedent” for global human rights cases, judges at The Hague’s district court said on Wednesday that they would allow the case to go forward, also indicating that the claimants – widows of four of the activists – would be able to bring further evidence to prove their case.
Continue reading...Netherlands-based crowdfunded news site posts public apology for misleading more than 45,000 donors about New York office
A Netherlands-based crowdfunded news site which raised $2.6m ahead of “launching in the US” has apologized and said it “screwed up”, after announcing its headquarters will actually be in Amsterdam.
In December 2018, the Correspondent, a planned English-language version of the Dutch De Correspondent, raised $2.6m from more than 45,000 donors in a widely publicized fundraising campaign. In March, however, it said it would not after all open a newsroom in New York.
Continue reading...It takes about an hour on the ferry, across often choppy waters, to reach the newest bit of the Netherlands. For those sailing in from the port of Lelystad, the first sign of the Marker Wadden is a long finger of sand dunes designed to protect against flooding.
“You see the cormorants, the black birds?” asks the environmentalist Roel Posthoorn, pointing skywards.
Continue reading...Professor Ton van Raan told use of phrase for ignored work is culturally insensitive
A leading American academic journal has refused to publish an article by a respected professor on the grounds that his use of the fairytale Sleeping Beauty as a metaphor for ignored scientific work is culturally insensitive and in danger of being “sexualised”.
Ton van Raan, a professor emeritus of quantitative science studies at Leiden University in the Netherlands, first likened the belated discovery of an academic work to the story of the Brothers Grimm fairytale some 15 years ago.
Continue reading...Barriers put up to deter ‘careless’ tourists from seeking perfect picture among bulbs
Barriers and advertising banners are being erected around fields in the tulip bulb region of the Netherlands in an attempt to deter a growing number of tourists from flattening the flowers to take selfies.
Tourists have been seen jumping above the tulips to secure the perfect picture, or lying down in the middle of fields, squashing the bulbs.
Continue reading...Investigation highlights failings of Dutch and UK authorities to care properly for unaccompanied minors
On a crisp winter day in a small village in the north of the Netherlands, a pile of leaves swirls around in the wind outside a brick house, an ordinary scene except for the CCTV cameras outside the front door and the occupants inside – child victims of trafficking. Many of the children are from Vietnam. They live in this protected shelter to keep them safe from gangs who want to smuggle them out of the Netherlands to the UK.
But an investigation by the Observer and Argos Radio of the Netherlands has revealed that, in the past five years, at least 60 Vietnamese children have disappeared from these shelters. Dutch police and immigration officials suspect the children end up in the UK working on cannabis farms and in nail salons.
Continue reading...The man dubbed ‘Indiana Jones of the art world’ says the paintings can ‘become a burden’
The ring at the door of the modest east Amsterdam apartment came late in the day on Thursday 14 March. On the doorstep stood two men “with contacts in the underworld”, Arthur Brand recalls, and with them a large, rectangular package.
Eagerly, Brand removed the covering and examined the contents: Buste de femme (Dora Maar), a portrait by Pablo Picasso of his mistress. Unsigned because it was never sold by the painter, it bore in its bottom-left corner the date he completed it, 26 April 1938, and was worth an estimated €25m (£21.5m).
Continue reading...Move is just one of measures taken to limit impact of mass tourism on historic city centre
Amsterdam is to ban guided tours of its red-light district as part of an effort to restrict the increasing throngs of visitors in its historic city centre, and because “they are not respectful” to sex workers.
“It is no longer acceptable in this age to see sex workers as a tourist attraction,” city councillor Udo Kock said. A survey has shown that 80% of sex workers say gawping tourists are bad for their business and councillors last year suggested moving the red light district to another part of the city.
Continue reading...Firearm seized and buildings searched after suspect held over shooting that killed three
Dutch prosecutors have said they are still considering a possible terrorist motive for Monday’s shooting in Utrecht, and have so far uncovered no link between the main suspect and the three people who were killed.
The regional public prosecutor’s office said in a statement that the investigators’ view was based on the nature of the shooting on Monday, which took place on a tram, and on a letter found in the getaway car.
Continue reading...Security increased across Netherlands as police say shooting may have ‘terrorist motive’
A suspected gunman is at large after a shooting on a tram in the Dutch city of Utrecht, which police said may have had a “terrorist motive”.
The Dutch government raised the terrorism threat level to the highest possible in the Utrecht province, and security was increased at schools, mosques and transportation hubs across the country.
Continue reading...London and others will be watching closely as Dutch city tries to tackle housing shortage
Amsterdam has drawn up plans to ban the rental of new-build homes on city land, as part of a spate of policies to combat spiralling house prices, housing shortages and over-saturation of tourism.
The plan from its housing chief states: “Investors are buying Amsterdam homes more and more frequently, intending to rent them out. This means that ‘normal’ house-buyers have less of a chance in the housing market, and Amsterdam is not happy with this.”
Continue reading...Talk of ‘the people’ and ‘elites’ is everywhere, Guardian research has revealed. It’s time to drop this simplistic discourse
Interactive: the rise and rise of populist language
An exciting new research project by the Guardian and Team Populism shows empirically what many have asserted and felt: the world is getting more populist. Professor Kirk Hawkins, from Brigham Young University in Utah, and 46 researchers analysed 728 public addresses by 140 presidents and prime ministers in 40 countries, in Europe and the Americas. This is the largest comparative project of this nature I am aware of, and a treasure trove for academics and journalists.
The study shows not just that the number of populist leaders has doubled, but that the average populist content of political leaders’ speeches has doubled too. Where political speeches were on average “not populist” in 2004, they are approaching “somewhat populist” today. To be clear, most of the political leaders studied were “not populist”, but that is to be expected of this particular subset of politicians, ie national leaders. Even today, populism is still primarily a feature of political challengers, who were not included in this study.
Continue reading...E-bikes now outsell standard bicycles in Netherlands, with quality prized more than price
In what was already a long-running purple patch for the Dutch cycle industry, domestic sales records have been broken in the last 12 months despite spiralling prices, as technological developments push the standard push-bike into the annals of history.
Related: The Guardian view on e-bikes: British cycling needs this boost | Editorial
Continue reading...Authorities say investigations led to suspicions the haul was to be taken to Pyongyang
Dutch customs officials at the port of Rotterdam have seized 90,000 bottles of vodka believed to be destined for the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and his army chiefs.
The discovery, on the eve of Kim’s two-day summit with Donald Trump in Hanoi, was made after Dutch authorities flagged up the suspicious route and records of a Chinese-owned container ship, Nebula.
Continue reading...As the world’s first junior cycle mayor, Lotta Crok wants to draw attention to the obstacles kids on bikes face – and inspire other children to cycle
During Amsterdam’s chaotic rush hour, nine-year-old Lotta Crok cycles to a very busy junction. “Look,” she says. “There’s traffic coming from everywhere. Four trams from four different directions. For a child on a bike that’s really confusing!”
Lotta is the first junior cycle mayor in the world and her working area is the Dutch capital. It is her mission to inspire children to cycle every day and draw attention to the obstacles that kids on bikes are facing.
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