The Netherlands issued its first ever gender-neutral passport. On Friday 57-year-old Leonne Zeegers from Breda, who as an intersex person does not identify as a man or a woman, received a passport with an 'X', instead of an 'M' for male or 'V' for female, NU.nl reports. 

Zeegers won the right to a gender neutral passport in a lawsuit. In May the court ruled that the fact Zeegers can not register as gender neutral is "a violation of private life, self-determination and personal autonomy". 

The book De 50 mooiste, beste en meest inspirerende Nederlandse toespraken was pulled from the market with immediate effect because only 49 of the speeches in the book are real. A speech about the mentality of the Dutch East India Company attributed to former Prime Minister Jan Peter Balkenende, turned out to actually be a satirical column first published on left-wing activist website Doorbraak.eu in 2006, newspaper Trouw discovered.

The A28 highway between Zwolle and Groningen is closed in both directions at Assen after a major accident involving four trucks. Traffic service ANWB expects that the highway will be closed until at least 4:00 p.m. on Friday. Motorists are advised to seek alternative routes, NU.nl reports.

According to the ANWB, the accident caused havoc on the road. One side of the highway is full of mail, which came out of one of the trucks. The other side is full of beets. Exactly how the accident happened is not yet known.

Minister Wopke Hoekstra of Finance canceled his planned visit to an investor conference in Saudi Arabia next week, following the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi after he visited the Saudi consulate in Turkey. The consultancy firm that organized Hoekstra trip confirmed that the Minister is no longer going, ANP reports.

Surveillance camera footage show Khashoggi entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul on October 3rd. There is no footage of him leaving again and he hasn't been seen since. There is still much confusion about what happened to him.

Dog trainers and animal experts are concerned about the University of Amsterdam's plan to create a puppy room in its library where students can cuddle with puppies and get rid of their stress during exam week. The puppies will indeed decrease students' stress, but being cuddled by dozens of students may not be good for the puppies' welfare.

The police found 275 kilograms of fireworks and 30 cannabis plants at a home on Irene Vorrinkstraat in Hoofddorp on Wednesday morning. Among the fireworks were 75 kilograms of mortars, which could have caused a massive explosion, the police said in a statement.

The police responded to the home around 4:00 a.m. on Wednesday after reports of a strong cannabis smell coming from the home. They found a hidden room equipped for cannabis cultivation, and 30 plants inside. The fireworks were found in the garage.

The police shot a 44-year-old man in his home on Tussen beide Markten street in Groningen when officers went to collect his legal firearm on Wednesday, the Groningen police said on Twitter. The man was taken to hospital with unknown injuries.

According to the police, the man's legal firearm was to be confiscated because he was recently involved in a fight. "Inside the home a situation arose in which officers felt it necessary to shoot", the police said.