A majority of the members of parliament in the Netherlands voted in favor of a curfew from 9 p.m. through 4:30 a.m. The curfew will begin at 9 p.m on Saturday a half-hour later than what was proposed by the outgoing prime minister, Mark Rutte.
The issue was up for debate on Thursday in Parliament as it was considered a controversial policy that should not be enacted by a caretaker Cabinet two months before the general election. The vote took place just after 6:30 p.m., over eight hours after hearings on the curfew started. Exiting coalition party D66 submitted a motion several hours into the debate to shift the start of the curfew back from 8:30 p.m., as Rutte proposed. That won the support from the outgoing prime minister's VVD party, and the other coalition parties of CDA and Christen Unie. Additionally, Labour (PvdA), the Socialist Party (SP) and 50Plus voted in favor, representing a combined total of 101 seats in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of Parliament.
Read more at:
MP's approve 9 p.m. curfew in the Netherland starting Saturday | NL Times
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January 20, 2021
The Netherlands bans flights from UK, S-Africa, S-America, plans to introduce curfew – by Eline Schaart
The Dutch government announced Wednesday that it will ban flights from the U.K., South Africa and South America as of Saturday in an effort to prevent more virulent strains of the coronavirus from taking hold across the country.
The new restrictions also mean everyone flying to the Netherlands will need to take a rapid antigen test, on top of the already existing requirement for a PCR-test conducted within 72 hours of departure."We're getting out of this, but first we have to brace ourselves again now that more contagious variants are coming our way,” caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
Rutte also announced plans to impose a curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. However, the government needs the support of a majority of MPs to implement the curfew given that the Cabinet is in caretaker mode after resigning last week. Opposition parties have been critical of a curfew, but local media reported that the GreenLeft and Labor parties are now leaning toward supporting the government line.
Read more at: The Netherlands bans flights from UK, plans to introduce curfew – POLITICO
The new restrictions also mean everyone flying to the Netherlands will need to take a rapid antigen test, on top of the already existing requirement for a PCR-test conducted within 72 hours of departure."We're getting out of this, but first we have to brace ourselves again now that more contagious variants are coming our way,” caretaker Prime Minister Mark Rutte said.
Rutte also announced plans to impose a curfew from 8:30 p.m. to 4:30 a.m. However, the government needs the support of a majority of MPs to implement the curfew given that the Cabinet is in caretaker mode after resigning last week. Opposition parties have been critical of a curfew, but local media reported that the GreenLeft and Labor parties are now leaning toward supporting the government line.
Read more at: The Netherlands bans flights from UK, plans to introduce curfew – POLITICO
Coronavirus vaccine: Scientists racing to understand new COVID-19 variants and whether they will derail vaccination efforts
Multiple new coronavirus variants have been discovered across several continents, from Europe to Africa to South America. Confirmed cases keep popping up in dozens of countries, Canada included.
Scientists are now racing to understand these sets of mutations, all while concerns are growing over their ability to infect people more easily or, in some cases, potentially evade the army of antibodies we create after being infected or vaccinated.
Read more at: Scientists racing to understand new COVID-19 variants and whether they will derail vaccination efforts | CBC News
Scientists are now racing to understand these sets of mutations, all while concerns are growing over their ability to infect people more easily or, in some cases, potentially evade the army of antibodies we create after being infected or vaccinated.
Read more at: Scientists racing to understand new COVID-19 variants and whether they will derail vaccination efforts | CBC News
January 18, 2021
The Netherlands: Dutch outgoing Rutte government criticized for chaotic start of vaccination program - local city health centers still in the dark when elderly will be vaccinated
The Dutch government continues to come under heavy criticism from lawmakers and the Public over their chaotic handling of the COVID-19 vaccination plan.
Local city health care center when called by people, young and old, are not able to give answers as to the schedules or details (dates) when the vacinations.
Read more at: EU-Digest
Local city health care center when called by people, young and old, are not able to give answers as to the schedules or details (dates) when the vacinations.
Read more at: EU-Digest
January 17, 2021
The Netherlands: "If we reelect Mark Rutte "the Dutch political Houdini" we don't deserve any better" - by Johan Fretz
The fall of the Rutte III cabinet took place in such a slow motion that its impact was spread out over a week. That was precisely Rutte's intention: if you move more slowly towards the ground, the impact will be less hard. Even in his own fall, Rutte remained the merciless strategist. If there was no other option, then only with as little damage to himself as possible.
Earlier this week, he had put on the table a sample of genuine “Rutlet logic”. Before the Christmas holidays, he had pretended that he thought it was all so intense and had to deal with it first. Now, after the holidays, he said that stepping down was a thing of the past. He may have thought we were all stupid and blame him: he has never been punished for anything in ten years. But the dynamics suddenly changed rapidly.
Lodewijk Asscher of thr PVDA labor party, the only one who had said aloud since the beginning that he felt shame and regret about his part in the benefits affair, still resigned. As is so often the case, it is the politicians who prefer integrity over power who pay the highest price, even though Asscher's choice was very justified and inevitable.
In looking back on his years in The Hague, he will have to reflect on the fact that he and his party entered Rutte II so indiscriminately, a cabinet that aimed to develop the public sector and human scale and in which it was established from the outset that such accidents would happen. That is why support for Asscher has crumbled so quickly in recent weeks: the affair reminded many voters how angry they were about this fatal government participation.
Even after Asscher's departure, Rutte continued to stop the fall of his cabinet behind the scenes. After all, it was not necessary from his VVD party viewpoint, and he undoubtedly felt strengthened by the voters behind the forty polled seats, who don't give a damn. But on Friday, Rutte solemnly said at the press conference: “We had to take responsibility,” as if it came from his deep inside. Those who listened more closely heard his cunning again: "Of course, it is always my ultimate responsibility in the end." In other words, I, the Good Samaritan, now fall for other people's sins, but have clean hands myself.What Typical Rutte B.S.
Political reality and public pressure can force a cabinet's resignation, but what they clearly cannot enforce is an inner realization in those responsible that they have failed morally. Mark Rutte does not resign out of regret or shame. He resigns because he had no other option. In doing so he devalues the symbolic value of the fall, which if it had been sincere could have contributed to the healing and the initial restoration of trust in the institutions.
Now our political Houdini PM has again freed himself from the chains underwater and has escaped from the steel box. On March 17 last year, he happily emerges, with that tirelessly cheerful grin that for ten years has kept others from seeing his brutal politics of hollowing out and reckoning behind it. Do we deserve better? If we re-elect him or not ?
Read more in the original Dutch version of "Het Parool" from where this translated version came: Als we Rutte opnieuw herverkiezen, verdienen we niet beter | Het Parool
Earlier this week, he had put on the table a sample of genuine “Rutlet logic”. Before the Christmas holidays, he had pretended that he thought it was all so intense and had to deal with it first. Now, after the holidays, he said that stepping down was a thing of the past. He may have thought we were all stupid and blame him: he has never been punished for anything in ten years. But the dynamics suddenly changed rapidly.
Lodewijk Asscher of thr PVDA labor party, the only one who had said aloud since the beginning that he felt shame and regret about his part in the benefits affair, still resigned. As is so often the case, it is the politicians who prefer integrity over power who pay the highest price, even though Asscher's choice was very justified and inevitable.
In looking back on his years in The Hague, he will have to reflect on the fact that he and his party entered Rutte II so indiscriminately, a cabinet that aimed to develop the public sector and human scale and in which it was established from the outset that such accidents would happen. That is why support for Asscher has crumbled so quickly in recent weeks: the affair reminded many voters how angry they were about this fatal government participation.
Even after Asscher's departure, Rutte continued to stop the fall of his cabinet behind the scenes. After all, it was not necessary from his VVD party viewpoint, and he undoubtedly felt strengthened by the voters behind the forty polled seats, who don't give a damn. But on Friday, Rutte solemnly said at the press conference: “We had to take responsibility,” as if it came from his deep inside. Those who listened more closely heard his cunning again: "Of course, it is always my ultimate responsibility in the end." In other words, I, the Good Samaritan, now fall for other people's sins, but have clean hands myself.What Typical Rutte B.S.
Political reality and public pressure can force a cabinet's resignation, but what they clearly cannot enforce is an inner realization in those responsible that they have failed morally. Mark Rutte does not resign out of regret or shame. He resigns because he had no other option. In doing so he devalues the symbolic value of the fall, which if it had been sincere could have contributed to the healing and the initial restoration of trust in the institutions.
Now our political Houdini PM has again freed himself from the chains underwater and has escaped from the steel box. On March 17 last year, he happily emerges, with that tirelessly cheerful grin that for ten years has kept others from seeing his brutal politics of hollowing out and reckoning behind it. Do we deserve better? If we re-elect him or not ?
Read more in the original Dutch version of "Het Parool" from where this translated version came: Als we Rutte opnieuw herverkiezen, verdienen we niet beter | Het Parool
January 15, 2021
The Netherlands: Dutch government quits over 'colossal stain' of tax subsidy scandal - by Stephanie van den Berg
Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s government resigned on Friday, accepting responsibility for wrongful accusations of fraud by the tax authorities that drove thousands of families to financial ruin, often on the basis of ethnicity.
Read more at: Dutch government quits over 'colossal stain' of tax subsidy scandal | Reuters
Read more at: Dutch government quits over 'colossal stain' of tax subsidy scandal | Reuters
Covid - will vaccinations work with different variants of Covid: How worrying are the UK, South Africa, and Brazil coronavirus variants? - by Michelle Roberts
New variants of coronavirus are emerging that are more infectious than the original one that started the pandemic.
Scientists are urgently studying these mutated versions to understand what threat they pose.
The current vaccines were designed around earlier variants, but scientists are confident that they should still work against the new ones, although perhaps not quite as well.
Lab studies are underway to check this.
Vaccines train the body to attack several parts of the virus, however, not just these sections of the spike protein.
Variants could emerge in the future that are more different again.
Read more: .Covid: How worrying are the UK, South Africa, and Brazil coronavirus variants? - BBC News
Scientists are urgently studying these mutated versions to understand what threat they pose.
The current vaccines were designed around earlier variants, but scientists are confident that they should still work against the new ones, although perhaps not quite as well.
Lab studies are underway to check this.
Vaccines train the body to attack several parts of the virus, however, not just these sections of the spike protein.
Variants could emerge in the future that are more different again.
Read more: .Covid: How worrying are the UK, South Africa, and Brazil coronavirus variants? - BBC News
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