Refugees in the Netherlands: 'The Netherlands has accepted only 2,100 refugees under EU quota scheme'

The Netherlands has so far taken in 2,100 refugees under the European quota plan drawn up in 2015 when some 160,000 refugees were forecast to arrive in Italy and Greece, broadcaster NOS reports.

The Netherlands had been set to accept some 9,000 people under the quota plan, but the actual numbers of people claiming refugee status in the two countries is far below expectations. In total, 25,000 people have been allocated help in another European country.

In June, judges in The Hague said the Netherlands does not have to take in any more refugees from camps in Italy and Greece than it has already has.

A foundation called We Gaan Ze Halen (we are going to fetch them) had taken the Dutch state to court, arguing that the Netherlands had not taken in enough asylum seekers under the terms of the EU resettlement deal.

The Netherlands has accepted only 2,100 refugees under EU quota scheme' - DutchNews.nl

Internet Privacy: E-Mail Services List of Secure Email Providers that take Privacy Serious

Privacy laws and the internet

When you need an e-mail account and you want to start using the very popular and widely used Gmail services please note that the following is what you will be asked to agree on before you can get it and I quote: "Google Privacy Terms By choosing “I agree” below, you agree to Google’s Terms of Service.

You also agree to our Privacy Policy, which describes how we process your information, including these key points: Data we process when you use Google When you use Google services to do things like write a message in Gmail or comment on a YouTube video, we store the information you create.

When you search for a restaurant on Google Maps or watch a video on YouTube, for example, we process information about that activity – including information like the video you watched, device IDs, IP addresses, cookie data, and location. We also process the kinds of information described above when you use apps or sites that use Google services like ads, Analytics, and the YouTube video player.

Depending on your account settings, some of this data may be associated with your Google Account and we treat this data as personal information. You can control how we collect and use this data at My Account (myaccount.google.com).

Why we process it? We process this data for the purposes described in our policy, including to: Help our services deliver more useful, customized content such as more relevant search results; Improve the quality of our services and develop new ones; Deliver personalized ads, both on Google services and on sites and apps that partner with Google;Improve security by protecting against fraud and abuse; and Conduct analytics and measurement to understand how our services are used.

Combining data We also combine data among our services and across your devices for these purposes. For example, we show you ads based on information from your use of Search and Gmail, and we use data from trillions of search queries to build spell-correction models that we use across all of our services".Bottom-line: whatever you write or do on Gmail is not really private and belongs to Gmail.

For a list of secure email providers that take your privacy serious and do not track you (* = recommended, last updated December 7, 2016)click on the link below.

Read more: List of Secure Email Providers that take Privacy Serious - FreedomHack

EU Healthcare: Bad health: EU buries billions with 550,000 premature deaths due to chronic disease

A joint OECD/European Commission report says chronic diseases and premature deaths cost the EU billions every year. It calls for better prevention policies and improved health care. So what else is new?

Health reports seldom say anything new. There's the obligatory risk factors - smoking, alcohol and obesity - and an equally standard call for better prevention policies and improved healthcare systems. Let's face it: We could all live a bit more healthily.

Such is the mainline in "Health at a Glance: Europe 2016," a joint report launched Wednesday (23.11.2016) by the OECD and the European Commission in Brussels.

But what's striking about this report is the human cost of Europe's failing health.

The report estimates that about 550,065 people of working-age (25-64 years) in the European Union die prematurely from chronic diseases. It could be a heart attack, stroke, diabetes, or a form of cancer. And their dying early, says the report, costs the EU 115 billion euros annually.

Note EU-Digest: another issue not discussed in this report, which certainly must be seen as a part of the problem, is that in some countries, like the Netherlands, where insurance programs have been  privatized and the insurance premium costs have continuously been on the rise for the consumer, people have not been going to the Dr. or hospital for preventive care, mainly because of personal economic reasons.

For the complete report Read more: Bad health: EU buries billions with 550,000 premature deaths due to chronic disease | Science | DW.COM | 23.11.2016