Britain's falling apart: some revelation at hand? - Brexit and Sinn Fein’s success boost talk of Irish unification

Read more at:
Is some revelation at hand? - Brexit and Sinn Fein’s success boost talk of Irish unification | Briefing | The Economist

The Netherlands: Two suspected letter bombs explode in the Netherlands

wo suspected letter bombs went off on Wednesday in the Dutch cities of Amsterdam and Kerkrade but no one was injured, police have confirmed.

The first explosion was reported shortly before 0800 CET at a postal sorting centre on Bolstoen, in northwestern Amsterdam.

Police said in a statement that one of the employees heard a "hissing sound" emitting from a letter and threw it away. A "slight bang" then occurred.

The letter bomb contained an extortion letter, demanding payment in bitcoins.

There were no injuries and an initial sweep of the building by experts found no other explosives.

Read more at: Two suspected letter bombs explode in the Netherlands | Euronews

The Netherlands: Half of Netherlands tenants expect they'll never afford buying

Nearly half of tenants in the Netherlands don't think they will ever be able to buy a home, according to an international study by ING among nearly 3 thousand tenants who have never owned a home. 48 percent of Dutch tenants think they'll never buy, compared to the European average of 38 percent, RTL Nieuws reports. Tenants in the Netherlands who think they will eventually buy

Read more at:
https://nltimes.nl/2020/02/11/half-netherlands-tenants-expect-theyll-never-afford-buying

EU-US Relations: Trump claims EU was formed so member states could treat U.S. 'badly'

While addressing the nation's governors at the White House on Monday, President Trump took a shot at the European Union and NATO.

NATO, he said, was "going down like a rocket ship" before he came in and saved the day by convincing other member states to contribute more money.

But he seemed generally pleased with the direction things are going. That's not the case for the EU, which Trump claimed is treating the United States "very badly."

Trump even argued one of the "primary reasons" the EU was formed was so its member states could pick on the U.S, which is a claim that doesn't really have much going for it historically. The EU is the final stage of a progression of a continent-wide economic community that was first implemented in the aftermath of World War II. Seeking to avoid a third conflict on such a scale, European leaders at the time sought to create a cooperative system in which countries could trade with little hindrance.

Eventually, that morphed into the current EU, which has expanded beyond just economic unity.

Trump with this statement is talking out of his lower body part. The supranational organization obviously hasn't always seen eye to eye with the U.S. on all matters, but it's a reach to say those disagreements were the reason it was formed in the first place.

EU-Digest

The Netherlands: ING the second Netherlands bank to turn to negative savings interest

 Banking institution ING has become the second bank in the Netherlands to charge a negative interest rate on certain savings accounts. Customers will face a -0.50 percent interest rate for any amount in an account above one million euros, the bank said on Friday. The policy will affect about 6,400 current clients. The negative rate is charged per account, and not per customer.

Note Insure Digest: this is total nonsense and can not be justified in any logical way, except that it unfortunately qualifies as greed.

Read more at:
https://nltimes.nl/2020/01/31/ing-second-netherlands-bank-turn-negative-savings-interest

The Netherlands' first centre for sexually exploited men opens in Eindhoven

Lumens, a walk-in centre for victims of sexual exploitation, has opened in the Netherlands. This centre is unique, as it is the first of its kind in the Netherlands to focus specifically on men and boys.

The centre opened off the back of a 2018 study that found that, in Eindhoven, around 70 men worked in prostitution. Just less than 60 of which, were minors who did not always work voluntarily.

Read more at: The Netherlands' first centre for sexually exploited men opens in Eindhoven

The Netherlands: Storm Ciara may bring gale-force winds and rain on Sunday

There is a strong
chance that the Dutch coast may be hit by a winter storm this weekend –
and Ciara is the first named Atlantic storm to head across the North Sea
to the Netherlands.

Storm Ciara will first batter Britain and then head to the Netherlands,
reaching the coast with winds of up to 100kph on Sunday or Sunday
evening.

The storm is ‘not yet a certainty’ and the Netherlands will miss the
worst of it, but conditions will at least be very blustery for a few
days, Weerplaza meteorologist Wilfred Janssen said.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

There is a strong
chance that the Dutch coast may be hit by a winter storm this weekend –
and Ciara is the first named Atlantic storm to head across the North Sea
to the Netherlands.

Storm Ciara will first batter Britain and then head to the Netherlands,
reaching the coast with winds of up to 100kph on Sunday or Sunday
evening.

The storm is ‘not yet a certainty’ and the Netherlands will miss the
worst of it, but conditions will at least be very blustery for a few
days, Weerplaza meteorologist Wilfred Janssen said.

Read more at DutchNews.nl:

There is a strong chance that the Dutch coast may be hit by a winter storm this weekend – and Ciara is the first named Atlantic storm to head across the North Sea to the Netherlands. Storm Ciara will first batter Britain and then head to the Netherlands, reaching the coast with winds of up to 100kph on Sunday or Sunday evening.

The storm is ‘not yet a certainty’ and the Netherlands will miss the worst of it, but conditions will at least be very blustery for a few days, Weerplaza meteorologist Wilfred Janssen said.

Read more at: Storm Ciara may bring gale-force winds and rain on Sunday - DutchNews.nl