The Netherlands: Dutch politician is arrested over plot to KILL Prime Minister Mark Rutte

Arnoud van Doorn, who quit the far-right Freedom Party in 2012 to convert to Islam, was detained in the Hague over the alleged plot. He was released without charge on Monday but police said an investigation was ongoing.

Also on Monday police announced they had stepped up security for Rutte, who is known for cycling to work with little or no security, over fears he could be targeted for kidnapping or attack by drug gangs.

Police said they arrested van Doorn after he was seen 'acting suspiciously' in the same area of the Hague as Rutte.

The prosecutor's office said van Doorn appeared to be gathering information for 'preparation of attempted murder', without elaborating.

But his lawyer Anis Boumanjal said van Doorn had only been in the Hague for an hour prior to his arrest and was in the area to give his mother's cat medication.

In that time he stopped for coffee at a café that was coincidentally opposite the gym where Rutte was exercising and then just happened to walk past a BMW believed to be carrying the PM.

Read more at: Dutch politician is arrested over plot to KILL Prime Minister Mark Rutte | Daily Mail Online

The Netherlands - Global Warmimg: IMF says Dutch economy is recovering, but more needed in climate change fight

The strong economic recovery of the Netherlands justifies the Cabinet's decision to stop the massive coronavirus economic support packages. But the continuing direction of the coronavirus pandemic remains "uncertain" and politicians in The Hague will have to remain ready to reactivate support programs such as the NOW scheme if necessary, according to researchers from the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

Read more at: IMF says Dutch economy is recovering, but more needed in climate change fight | NL Times

The Netherlands: Dutch Covid-19 hospitalizations at lowest point in 10 weeks

Hospitals in the Netherlands have admitted 301 patients with Covid-19 this past week, the lowest total since July 19. Hospital admissions have fallen by 20 percent compared to the previous seven-day period, according to figures from patient monitor LCPS which were updated on Monday.

An average of 43 patients were admitted each of the past seven days, including 10 sent to an intensive care unit. A week earlier, hospitals were accepting 54 patients daily, though the number of average ICU patient admissions remained the same.

Read more at: Dutch Covid-19 hospitalizations at lowest point in 10 weeks | NL Times

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