Business

Dredging company Van Oord, ING Bank and credit insurer Atradius were all involved in an urban development project in Angola in which 3 thousand families were forcibly driven out of their homes to make from for the project, Trouw and Financieele Dagblad report based on leaked documents.

Road users in large parts of the Netherlands are warned to be careful of icy roads on Monday morning. Thick fog may also reduce visibility and hinder traffic, especially in Limburg and Noord-Brabant. Meteorological institute KNMI issued a code yellow warning. Travelers' association ANWB expects morning rush hour to be busier than usual.

The ice on the roads is expected to melt away through the course of the morning. The fog should also dissipate by mid-morning, according to the KNMI. Motorists are advised to drive slowly and keep a safe following distance. 

The American ambassador to the Netherlands confirmed that the United States does not want Dutch chip producer ASML to share its advance chip-making machines with everyone. In an interview with Financieele Dagblad, Pete Hoekstra said that this technology "does not belong in certain places". According to the newspaper, he was referring to China.

Percentage wise, web shops and parcel deliverers delivered fewer packages late this past December. Sinterklaas in particular was more on time - only 3.5 percent of packages were late, compared to 5.5 percent in 2018. The delivery of Christmas cards, on the other hand, did not go well - 36 percent of people complained that their Christmas cards arrived after Christmas or even after New Year's, NOS reports based on a study by Q&A.

The Amsterdam-Amstelland Fire Department is washing cars to raise funds for their Australian colleagues on Thursday. Locals can have their cars washed for "a symbolic amount of €7.50 (or more)". All money raised will go to "our fire brigade colleagues who have been fighting bush fires in Australia for weeks, without getting paid for it", the fire brigade said on Facebook.

In December a total of 9 million residents of the Netherlands had a paying job - the highest number of employed persons in the country to date, Statistics Netherlands reported on Thursday. After a minor increase in the second and third quarter of 2019, unemployment decreased again in the fourth quarter, and the number of active unemployment benefits with it.

Dutch music is still going strong as an export product. In 2018, a total of 216 million euros were made by exporting music abroad, up from 201 million the year before, according to figures from Buma Cultuur, which annually charts the export value of Dutch music, NOS reports.

The amount of 216 million euros comes from 174 million euros from performances abroad, 29 million euros from rights, and 13 million euros from recordings. Buma Cultuur investigated 1,319 artists. 963 of them were active abroad, in 82 countries. 

For the first time ever, more Netherlands residents traveled to their vacation destination abroad by plane than by car. The number of plane trips increased by 3 percent to 10.1 million last year, while the number of car trips decreased by 3 percent to 10 million, according to figures from the Dutch Tourism Board, NOS reports. 

Aviation in the Netherlands can only be allowed to grow if the sector decreases its nitrogen emissions, a committee on nitrogen emissions led by Johan Remkes said in advice to the government about air travel. Remkes thinks it only fair that aviation, like other sectors, makes a balanced contribution to reducing emissions. If that doesn't happen, Schiphol can't grow any further and Lelystad Airport can't open for holiday flights, the committee said, NOS reports.

Three employees of the University of Groningen (RUG) are suspected of embezzling 1.2 million euros in public money from the university and funneling it into their own foundation, the board of the Faculty of Arts announced in a letter that NOS has in its possession. All three employees were affiliated with the Faculty of Arts.

A 22-year-old Dutch-Persian woman who had plans to vacation in the United States with her friends had those dreams crushed when she was not allowed to board her plane to Los Angeles at Schiphol last week. Annahita Mazaheri was banned from entering the U.S. due to her Iranian surname, she said to AD. The D66 wants to know whether the U.S. immigration service has the authority to refuse passengers on Dutch territory.