Amsterdam mayor Femke Halsema will investigate whether the prostitution sector can be moved out of the Red Light District and located in other parts of the city, including neighborhoods where more workplaces can be found. A prostitution hotel outside the Red Light District is one of the options she is looking into, she said in a city council debate on Thursday, Het Parool reports.
Business
Oct 18 '19 11:58
Oct 17 '19 15:15
Organic supermarket chain Marqt is merging with Udea, the parent company of organic chain Ekoplaza, the two parties announced in a press release on Thursday. A majority of their shareholders approved the merger.
Both chains have a strong position in the organic shopping market. By merging, they hope to further strengthen that position.
Oct 17 '19 13:40
A scientist at the University of Amsterdam is under fire because she rejected a Turkish student for an internship due to the Turkish offensive in Syria. In response to the student's application, the scientist said that she is "not inviting Turkish students at this time" due to the situation in Syria, AD reports.
Oct 17 '19 12:46
Damaged overhead lines between Hoofddorp and Leiden left three trains stranded on Thursday, ProRail reported. Around 1,400 passengers were evacuated. The stranded trains are currently being towed away.
"The contractor is currently inspecting the damage", ProRail said. "How long the repairs will take is not yet known." No trains are currently running between Hoofddorp and Leiden. "ProRail regrets the inconvenience for all travelers on this route."
Oct 17 '19 08:34
On Wednesday, November 20th, hospital staff across the Netherlands will do the hospital variant of a strike - refuse to perform any of their non-emergency duties. This is the first national strike by hospital workers ever in the Netherlands, unions FNV, FBZ, NU'91 and CNV said, NOS reports.
Oct 16 '19 16:44
Farmers protesting in the Utrecht region who then drove their tractors on the A12 motorway rejected orders from the police to exit the A12 and park their vehicles at the Cars Jeans Stadium in Den Haag. Instead, many stormed into town, attempting to either create a disturbance in the city center, force their way near parliament, or to other gathering sites in the city.
Oct 16 '19 13:00
In the next 30 years, the Dutch government wants to limit the number of flights from Schiphol to popular tourist destinations. Instead the focus will be on increasing the airport's international network by favoring companies who contribute to this network in the distribution of flight slots, the Volkskrant reports based on Infrastructure Minister Cora van Nieuwenhuizen's draft Aviation Policy Document 2020-2050.
Oct 16 '19 12:10
Public works department Rijkswaterstaat closed the A12 highway from Utrecht to Den Haag at Nootdorp at the request of the police. The highway is overcrowded with farmers on tractors heading towards The Hague for a demonstration. Rijkswaterstaat advises motorists to avoid the highways around The Hague region.
Oct 16 '19 11:50
A record number of over 300 thousand bachelors and masters degree students enrolled at Dutch universities and universities of applied sciences for the 2019/2020 academic year, according to preliminary figures released by the association of Dutch universities VSNU. The association calls on the government to invest more in higher education, so that universities can keep up with the continuous growth in student numbers.
Oct 16 '19 11:00
Most tulip bulbs sold at the popular flower markets in Amsterdam and Lisse never bloom, according to a study commissioned by the municipality of Amsterdam and the general association for flower bulb culture KAVB. "Research shows that there is structural deception of consumers when selling tulip bulbs at the Flower Market and the so-called 'Bloembollenboulevard' along the N208 in Lisse," the KAVB said in a statement.
Oct 16 '19 08:58
Rent increases are leveling off in the Netherlands, particularly in the large cities, according to the newest rent monitor by housing platform Pararius. Nationwide, the average rent per square meter increased by 3.6 percent in the third quarter, compared to the same quarter last year. Utrecht is the only of the four large cities where rents increased by more than 5 percent. In Rotterdam, rent prices even decreased.
Oct 16 '19 08:07
The Ministry of Defense is supporting the police and the municipality of The Hague on Wednesday in cordoning off the city center, including the Binnenhof, to large vehicles. Hundreds of farmers are expected to go to the city today to protest against nitrogen measures.
Oct 16 '19 07:35
Hundreds of farmers have taken to the streets on their tractors in another protest against nitrogen measures. They will start their protest in De Bilt, near the national institute for public health and environment RIVM, and then move on to The Hague around midday. Traffic is already piling up, with 346 kilometers of traffic jams reported by 7:15 a.m., according to the ANWB.
Oct 15 '19 18:00
The flourishing Dutch economy has a down side, and that is that workplaces in the Netherlands are becoming less safe, according to trade union CNV. A quarter of Dutch employees in high-risk professions have fallen victim to an industrial accident at least once, according to a study Panelwizard performed among nearly 1,100 employees on behalf of the union.
Oct 15 '19 15:30
Dutch development bank FMO funded a number of projects involved in serious abuses, Trouw reports based on its own research. The newspaper identified at least seven projects that FMO funded in which the companies involved were connected to murder, intimidation, environmental damage, arbitrary arrests and land grabbing.
Oct 15 '19 14:32
The Cornelius Haga Lyceum in Amsterdam will get no more funding from the government as of December 1st, Minister Arie Slob for Primary and Secondary Education said in a letter to parliament.
Oct 15 '19 10:30
Flights from Schiphol to Barcelona departed again on Tuesday morning, after many flights to the Catalan city were canceled on Monday evening due to unrest. At 6:00 a.m. on Tuesday, a Transavia flight departed from Schiphol to Barcelona, followed by a Veuling flight an hour later. Other flights to the Spanish city for Tuesday are all still on schedule, according to the Schiphol website.
Oct 15 '19 09:14
Dutch central bank DNB currently considers the situation on the Dutch housing market the biggest threat to financial stability in the Netherlands, according to the DNB's six-monthly Overview of Financial Stability. The "systemic risk in the housing market" increased significantly in the past years and a sudden fall in house prices could be disastrous for households and banks, the regulator said, RTL Nieuws reports.
Oct 15 '19 08:18
The provinces of Gelderland, Overijssel and Drenthe followed Friesland's example and announced on Monday that they are reversing the nitrogen measures they announced last week. This happened as hundreds of farmers took their tractors to protest at eight provincial governments. "This is asking for further actions", Jan Brouwer, director of the Center for Public Order and Safety, said to NOS.
Oct 14 '19 09:27
There are far too few spaces for bicycles on the train to keep up with the growing number of public transit users that travel with their bikes, according to cyclists' union Fietsersbond and travelers' association Rover. They call on NS to take measures, especially now that cycling is increasingly being encouraged, the Telegraaf reports.
Oct 14 '19 08:55
If nothing changes, stress and high workloads will affect a quarter of Dutch workers to such an extent that they will have to work less or not at all by 2030, according to service provider Arbo Unie. The number of employees with a burnout doubled in the past 20 years and that trend will only continue, Arbo Unie predicts, AD reports.
Oct 11 '19 15:20
All companies in the Netherlands that hatch chickens for meat are guilty of animal abuse, according to a not-yet-published ruling from the Ministry of Agriculture that the Volkskrant has in its possession. After hatching, nearly 500 million chicks per year run the risk of being left without food and water for an unnecessarily long time. The hatcheries have five years to rectify this, according to the newspaper.
This decision follows a lengthy court procedure filed by animal welfare organization Wakker Dier in 2013.
Oct 11 '19 08:39
The government is taking extra measures to fight abuses in the sex industry. Sex workers will soon be required to have a permit to do their job, and the minimum age for sex work will be raised from 18 to 21. It will also soon be punishable to be the pimp of a sex worker who doesn't have a permit, according to a legislative proposal the government will soon present, AD reports based on sources.
Oct 11 '19 07:43
Men earn more than women in the Netherlands, no matter the sexual orientation. Of all registered cohabiting couples in the country, gay couples earn the most. The primary income - joint income from work or enterprise - of hetero couples is in second place, followed by the primary income of lesbian couples in a close third, according to a Statistics Netherlands analysis.
