KLM had to apologize for a tweet posted by KLM India on Wednesday. The tweet, posted on the 5th anniversary of the MH17 disaster, spoke about what seats you are most likely to die in if you're in a plane crash.
Business
Jul 19 '19 10:10
Utrecht and Amsterdam will be the first Dutch places to have an official LEGO store. Both stores will open later this year, though exactly where they will be located is not yet clear, NU.nl reports.
LEGO franchises previously opened in the Netherlands, but this is the first time a LEGO store will open that is managed by LEGO itself. The new stores in Amsterdam and Utrecht will be entirely devoted to the colorful Danish building blocks. The stores will also host building competitions and allow customers to create their own LEGO figures.
Jul 18 '19 16:00
KLM is under fire over a recent tweet about the company's breastfeeding policy. According to the airline's policy, mothers are allowed to breastfeed their baby on board a flight, but can be asked to cover up if other passengers take offense. The tweet led to hundreds of predominantly negative reactions.
Jul 18 '19 09:11
"A moderation in growth or a limited decline in aviation" will not hurt the Dutch economy, but will benefit the environment, research agency CE Delft concluded in a study commissioned by Natuur en Milieu. The researchers found that there is no scientific basis for five important arguments often used as reasons not to limit growth in the aviation sector, NOS reports.
Jul 17 '19 14:20
The Council of State blocked the widening of the Utrecht ring road in a ruling on Wednesday. The minister of the then Ministry of Infrastructure and Environment gave permission to widen the road, but the Council of State abolished this decision, NU.nl reports.
The plan was to widen the highway at Amelisweerd to seven lanes in each direction, in order to ensure a better flow of traffic on the A27 and A12 highways. In order to widen this highway, thousands of trees will need to be felled.
Jul 17 '19 13:30
The average national rent increase in the second quarter of 2019 was the lowest since the second quarter of 2015. Rents in the Netherlands increased an average of 3.1 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to figures from Pararius. This clearly shows that the price increases are slowing down, the housing platform said, NU.nl reports.
Rent increases fell below 5 percent for the first time in 3.5 years in the last quarter of 2018. And that slowing down effect is continuing, according to Pararius.
Jul 16 '19 16:00
An NS conductor and train driver had the opportunity to prove their commitment to their clients recently when a woman from Assen accidentally got on the wrong train and therefore risked missing her surgery. The conductor rose to the challenge and arranged for the intercity train to make an extra stop in Hoogeveen, so that the woman could get to the hospital on time, AD reports.
Jul 16 '19 14:20
The Haga Hospital in The Hague is the first Dutch body to be fined for violating the new European privacy law, the General Data Protection Regulation. The Dutch Data Protection Authority fined the hospital 460 thousand euros for not sufficiently protecting a patient's privacy, NU.nl reports.
Jul 16 '19 12:40
After nine years in operation, the Amsterdam Underground tour - started by the De Regenboog Groep, an NGO that works with homeless people - will now be in the hands of the formerly homeless guides who have lived the experiences the tour aims to illuminate to tourists. De Regenboog made the decision to form a cooperative for the four current volunteers to own the business and have full control of their narratives.
Jul 16 '19 09:16
Since 2010 Dutch banks and insurers provided around 7.9 billion euros in financing to large shale gas and plastic companies, according to research by the Fair Banking and Insurance Guide. ING was the largest Dutch financier for these companies, investing 3.5 billion euros into them, NU.nl reports.
Jul 15 '19 15:10
Albert Heijn is testing its first delivery robot on the High Tech Campus in Eindhoven from Monday. Students and staff can order products from the Albert Heijn To Go on campus through an app, after which the robot will deliver it. This first experiment will last until next week Friday, RTL Nieuws reports.
The delivery robot is not completely automated - Albert Heijn employees have to load the ordered items in the robot manually, and the recipient has to take them out. But the robot will find the delivery location by itself.
Jul 15 '19 14:20
The first meeting to discuss the future of Amsterdam’s Red Light District was met with disagreement and polarizing opinions on Wednesday evening at the Compagnietheater, the 18th century former church that sits in De Wallen. The meeting, organized by Mayor Femke Halsema, gathered residents, sex workers, and entrepreneurs who will be affected by the proposed changes for the area.
Jul 15 '19 13:30
The amount of greenhouse gasses emitted by Dutch airlines increased significantly in the past five years. TUI Airlines Nederland saw its emissions increase by 74 percent, Corendon by 70 percent, Transavia by 33 percent, and KLM by 18 percent, NOS reports based on figures from the Dutch emissions authority NEa.
Jul 15 '19 10:10
Dutch charity organizations that collect textiles for reuse or second-hand sales are increasingly struggling with people who dump their chemical- and other household waste in the clothing bins. The clothing that they collect from the public containers are so contaminated that they often cannot be used anymore. The umbrella organization for textile recycling VHT is therefore calling on the government and municipalities to intervene, Trouw reports.
Jul 12 '19 16:10
The Dutch government is nominating only one candidate for the position of director of the International Monetary Fund. And that candidate is former PvdA Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, sources in The Hague confirmed to both NOS and the Volkskrant.
Earlier this week current Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said that the Netherlands has a few excellent candidates. On Friday he said that one candidate seems to be holding really good cards and that the government wants to improve their position even further. He did not mention any names.
Jul 12 '19 12:50
School's out for summer in northern Netherlands on Friday and that means crowded airports and busy roads. Friday is a peak day for both departures and arrivals at Schiphol, and the airport is therefore expected to be very busy. Sunday is another peak day for departures, according to the airport.
After Friday, the arrivals at Schiphol will taper off somewhat. Saturday's departures is also expected to be very busy.
Jul 12 '19 09:32
Dutch people who regularly attend their church or mosque are more often active as volunteers than their fellow-believers who don't attend religious services. Practicing religious Dutch are also more likely to have confidence in their fellow human beings and in civil society organizations, Statistics Netherlands reported on Friday.
Jul 11 '19 15:10
The Cornelius Haga Lyceum can stay open the upcoming school year, but only if the school directors are replaced. If a new interim board is appointed in the first weeks of the new school year, the pupils of the Islamic high school in Amsterdam can go to school as usual, Minister Arie Slob for Primary and Secondary Education announced on Thursday.
Jul 11 '19 14:20
The Dutch government is planning to implement stricter rules for financial institutions' remuneration policies, including stricter rules on share benefits and bonuses. Representatives of the FinTech sector, which falls under 'financial institutions', are outraged by these new rules, saying that they will result in higher financial risks for the companies, unfair competition, and higher administrative costs, Financieele Dagblad reports.
Jul 10 '19 12:40
A group of 25 Dutch investment funds decided to only push money into companies with women among their executives. They agreed that they will only invest in companies who have at least 35 percent women among their executives, and gave themselves three years to achieve this goal, NOS reports.
The 25 funds together manage an estimated 1.1 billion euros in invested capital - about a quarter of the total assets managed by Dutch venture investors.
Jul 10 '19 11:50
The Dutch government made an additional amount of 80 million euros available for promoting a circular economy in 2019 and 2020. The money is intended for projects that "fit in with the transition to an economy without waste", and thereby contribute to reducing CO2 emissions, the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management announced.
The Netherlands' goal is to have a 50 percent circular economy by 2030, and have its economy be 100 percent waste-free by 2050.
Jul 10 '19 10:10
A KLM cargo plane lost a part of one of its wings above Zimbabwe on Monday. The wing flap came loose as the Boeing 747-400ERF was approaching the Robert Mugabe Airport in the capital of Harare, a KLM spokesperson confirmed to NH Nieuws. As far as is known, no one was hurt.
The plane, operated for KLM Cargo by subsidiary Martinair, was on its way from Johannesburg to Harare, according to Luchtvaartnieuws. The flap fell off above Chitungwiza, some 30 kilometers southeast of Harare and near the airport.
Jul 10 '19 09:18
Dutch rail company NS is looking into building thousands of homes above the railways around Utrecht Central Station, Amsterdam Sloterdijk, and The Hague Central Station. NS wants to use the money it expects to earn with this to modernize the train stations, RTL Nieuws reports.
Jul 9 '19 16:50
General intelligence and security service AIVD is threatening to take legal action against Volkskrant journalist Huib Modderkolk if he does not delete some words and sentences from his new book. These passages could reveal state secrets, and if he does not remove them, charges will be pressed against him, the AIVD confirmed to NU.nl after a report in the Volkskrant.
