Netherlands: Thief jailed for stealing van Gogh and Frans Hals paintings worth millions of pounds from museums - by Amar Mehta

A man has been convicted of stealing a painting by Vincent van Gogh worth several million pounds from a museum in the Netherlands.

The 59-year-old was also found guilty of snatching a Frans Hals piece from another museum in the country, again worth millions of pounds, and neither of the works have been recovered.

Read more at: Netherlands: Thief jailed for stealing van Gogh and Frans Hals paintings worth millions of pounds from museums | World News | Sky News

Dutch Court Rules Border Police Can Use Ethnicity as One of the Gauges for Searches

A Dutch court ruled Wednesday that border police can use ethnicity as one of the gauges for selecting people for checks at the border, although it cannot be the only one.

Read more at: Dutch Court Rules Border Police Can Use Ethnicity as One of the Gauges for Searches

Democracy: How democracy can win again – by Gergely Karácsony

My political awakening coincided with the systemic changes that unfolded following the collapse of communism in Hungary in 1989. I was both fascinated and overjoyed by my country’s rapid democratisation. As a teenager, I persuaded my family to drive me to the Austrian border to see history in the making: the dismantling of the Iron Curtain, which allowed east-German refugees to head for the west. Reading many new publications and attending rallies for newly established democratic political parties, I was swept up by the atmosphere of unbounded hope for our future.

Today, such sentiments seem like childish naivety, or at least the product of an idyllic state of mind. Both democracy and the future of human civilisation are now in grave danger, beset by multifaceted and overlapping crises.

Read more at: How democracy can win again – Gergely Karácsony

Netherlands remains red on Europe's coronavirus map - with Flevoland Province highest numbers of cases.

As expected, the whole of the Netherlands will remain red on the European Union's coronavirus risk level map for seven more days. Over 4.6 percent of all coronavirus tests performed in the Netherlands over the past two weeks were positive, according to data submitted by the Ministry of Health to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Anything over 4 percent during a two-week period puts an entire country at the red level. Red is the second highest warning color on the map that the European health service ECDC produces every Thursday. All twelve provinces were also at red last week.

Flevoland is relatively the largest fire in the country. In the past two weeks, 281 out of every 100,000 inhabitants tested positive for the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. That is considerably lower than last week's calculation. Friesland follows, but the number of positive tests there is almost 19 percent higher than with data used to produce last week's ECDC map. With 254 cases per capita, Friesland has overtaken Noord-Holland (244), Zuid-Holland (241) and Overijssel (227). The number of cases is also increasing in Utrecht.

Read more at: Netherlands remains red on Europe's coronavirus map | NL Times

Netherlands: The Dutch are the world's tallest people. But they're getting shorter, study shows

Statistics Netherlands (or CBS), a government institution that gathers statistics about the country, says that Dutch men born in 2001 are 0.39 inches (1 centimeter) shorter than those born in 1980. Dutch women are 0.55 inches (1.4 centimeters) shorter. Despite these drops, the Netherlands still has the tallest people in the world — with CBS reporting that today's generation stands, on average, at 6 feet (182.9 centimeters) for men and 5.55 feet (169.3 centimeters) for women.

Read morwe at: The Dutch are the world's tallest people. But they're getting shorter, study shows

EU: Dutch PM Rutte to Invite Britain to Join Defence Deal With EU

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is set to be offered a defence and security co-operation deal with the European Union during a meeting with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Downing Street on Friday, the Times newspaper reported, citing a diplomatic source.

“Since Brexit, not enough European leaders have been in touch with Johnson. It is important to look at the geopolitics without being divided and there is a need to work with the UK," the source said.

It is expected that Turkey will also be approached by the EU in joinimg this new EU defence strategy

Read more at: https://eu-digest.blogspot.com/2021/09/france-recalls-ambassadors-to-us.html

The Netherlands: Dutch foreign minister resigns over Afghan evacuation

Dutch Foreign Minister Sigrid Kaag resigned on Thursday following a vote of no confidence in parliament.

A parliamentary majority decided that she had mishandled the evacuation of refugees from Afghanistan after the Taliban seized control.

Read more at: Dutch foreign minister resigns over Afghan evacuation | News | DW | 16.09.2021